AMAUROBIUS-RUFFOI N-SP, A RELICT SPIDER FROM THE SOUTHERN ALPS, WITH NOTES ON ITS CONGENERS IN THE ALPS (ARACHNIDA, ARANEI, AMAUROBIIDAE)

Amaurobius ruffoi n.sp. (male-female) is described from Mt. Lessini, southern Alps. It is closely allied to A. obustus L. Koch and possibly evolved as a peripheric isolate, when in glacial times the ancestral species was forced to regress towards a refugium in the Southeast. Altogether there are 10 Amaurobiidae in the Alps, Amaurobius (9), Callobius (1), occuring mainly in woodlands and at rocky sites with bushes, not in open grassland. Their distribution areas correspond to the concepts about centers of dispersal of the arboreal fauna of Europe: mediterranean species 2 (A. erberi, A. ferox), west-mediterranean/expansive 1 (A. similis), "European" 1 (A. fenestralis), extra-mediterranean 4 (A. obustus, A. jugorum,? A. scopolii, C. claustrarius), massifs de refuge of southern Alps 2 (A. ruffoi n.sp., A. tessinensis).