A survey of the spider family Nesticidae (Arachnida, Araneae) in Asia and Madagascar, with the description of forty-three new species

Forty-three new species of Nesticidae are described from China, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Madagascar, and two new junior synonyms are suggested. A new genus, Speleoticus gen. n., is described with Nesticus navicellatus Liu & Li, 2013 as the type species, and four species are transferfed from Nesticus, i.e., Speleoticus globosus (Liu & Li, 2013), comb. n., S. libo (Chen & Zhu, 2005), comb. n., S. navicellatus (Liu & Li, 2015), comb. n. and S. uenoi (Yaginuma, 1972), comb. n. The new species described in this paper belong to four genera and are: Hamus cornutus sp. n. (male female), H. kangdingensis sp. n. (male), H. luzon sp. n. (female), H. mangunensis sp. n. (male), Nescina kohi sp. n. (male female), Nesticella baiseensis sp. n. (male female), N. baobab sp. n. (male), N. caeca sp. n. (male female), N. chongqing sp. n. (female), N. dazhuangensis sp. n. (male female), N. fuliangensis sp. n. (male female), N. gazuida sp. n. (female), N. gongshanensis sp. n. (female), N. griswoldi sp. n. (male female), N. hongheensis sp. n. (male female), N. huomachongensis sp. n. (female), N. jingpo sp. n. (female), N. kaohsiungensis sp. n. (male female), N. lisu sp. n. (male female), N. liuzhaiensis sp. n. (female), N. nandanensis sp. n. (male female), N. phami sp. n. (male female), N. potala sp. n. (female), N. qiaoqiensis sp. n. (female), N. qiongensis sp. n. (male female), N. robusta sp. n. (male female), N. rongtangensis sp. n. (male), N. sanchaheensis sp. n. (male female), N. sulawesi sp. n. (female), N. sumatrana sp. n. (male), N. tibetana sp. n. (male female), N. vanlang sp. n. (female), N. wanzaiensis sp. n. (male female), N. xiongmao sp. n. (male female), N. xixia sp. n. (male female), N. yanbeiensis sp. n. (male female), N. yao sp. n. (female), N. zhiyuani sp. n. (male female), Pseudonesticus dafangensis sp. n. (male female), P. miao sp. n. (male female), P. spinosus sp. n. (male female), P. wumengensis sp. n. (female), P. ziyunensis sp. n. (male female). Nesticella inthanoni (Lehtinen & Saaristo, 1980), syn. n. is synonymised with N. mollicula (Thorell, 1898); N. taiwan Tso & Yoshida, 2000, syn. n. is synonymised with N. odonta (Chen, 1984). The female of Nesticella connectens Wunderlich, 1995, so far unknown, is described and recorded from Thailand. Nesticidae are reported from Madagascar for the first time. Nesticella nepalensis (Hubert, 1973) is recorded for the first time from China. Types of Nesticella odonta (Chen, 1984), N. songi Chen & Zhu, 2004 and N. yui Wunderlich & Song, 1995 are re-examined and photographed. The entire genus Nesticella is reviewed, and four species groups are recognised. DNA barcodes of the new species are obtained to confirm their correct identifications.