The affinities of Wubana and Allomengea with some notes on the latter genus (Araneae, Linyphiidae)

INTRODUCTION Allomengea, formerly known as Mengea, is a well-known genus in northwestern Europe. It is a small genus with only four species, which, though locally abundant, are not at all common. The males are easily recognized by the palp, which is adorned with a bunch of modified spines standing on the tip of a horn-like projection of the cymbium. Because of the long, thin embolus, which corresponds with coiled membraneous tubes in the female vulva, the genus is placed in the tribus Linyphiini 1). The genus appeared to be Holarctic, since Holm (1960) transferred the North American Microneta pinnata Emerton to Allomengea and at the same time published the first records from the extreme northwestern part of the Nearctic Region (Alaska) of Allomengea scopigera (Grube), which until then had only been known from Eurasia. This paper contains additional North American records of Allomengea scopigera, the first North American record of Allomengea vidua (L. Koch) (warburtonii O.P.-Cambridge), as well as a summary of all records, old and new of A. pinnata (Emerton). Also included in this paper is a fourth species, Allomengea dentisetis (Grube), which occurs in Siberia. It was originally described in Micryphantes, and closely resembles A. pinnata. Regretfully the name A. warburtonii must fall into the synonymy of the older Allomengea vidua (L. Koch). Emphasis is laid on the distributions of all four species under consideration, but our knowledge on the subject is much hampered by the lack of data from Asia. Micryphantes dentisetis Grube, described from Irkutsk, Siberia, was found to belong to Allomengea, and despite the poor condition of the holotype (a male with both palps missing) it is considered a synonym of Allo-