Author Description

The spider genus Selenops occurs in both the Old World and New World subtropics and tropics and contains nearly half of the species in the family Selenopidae. These spiders are extremely flattened dorsoventrally and are amongst the fast-est animals in the world. Despite the large size of some species, these aforementioned characteristics can make them difficult to detect. In this monograph the species from North America, Central America and Caribbean Islands (excluding Cuban endemics) are revised. In total, 21 new species are described and 6 species are synonymized. The males of S. bani and S. marcanoi, and the females of S. phaselus and S. geraldinae are described for the first time. Almost all species are redescribed, with new illustrations, including the internal female copulatory organs, most of which are illustrated for the first time. New distributional records and a key to species are also provided.