New spider species

It was recently published in The Journal of Arachnology the description of a new spider species from the portuguese mainland: Trachyzelotes minutus Crespo, 2010, was found in the pitfall traps of Sara Mendes, in her last project on the "montado" ecosystem throughout Alentejo, in 2008. This is a small species, the smallest known Trachyzelotes, as the only male didn't reach 3 mm and the females barely pass 3 mm. The species can be distinguished morphologically through the analysis of its copulatory structures, but can be considered generally as small brown spider, like the majority of Gnaphosidae species (scale bars = 0,1mm).

This is only one among the relevant amount of new species already found in Portugal by me and my colleagues. The important factor here is time to make proper descriptions and to interact with museums in order to check the specimens stored in their collections.