The Weta 31: 34-39 (2006) 34 The spider Periegops suteri (Araneae: Periegopidae): description, ecology, localities and management recommendations Cor J. Vink Ecology & Entomology Group, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand. Present address: AgResearch, Biocontriol and Biosecurity, PO Box 60, Lincoln, New Zealand (cor.vink@agresearch.co.nz) Introduction Periegops suteri (Urquhart, 1892) is restricted to Banks Peninsula and Riccarton Bush Reserve in Christchurch City and is one of only two described species in the distinctive Australasian monogeneric family Periegopidae. The other described species, P. australia, is restricted to a small area of southeastern Queensland (Forster 1995). The family Periegopidae is part of the Haplogynae (spiders with simple, ancestral genitalia) within the Araneomorphae (“true” spiders) and periegopids are considered to be the sister-group to the spitting spiders, Scytodidae (Coddington 2005). Female specimens of Periegops sp. have been found in the East Cape region of the North Island (Forster 1995) and the Alderman Islands, off the coast from the Coromandel Peninsula (Forster & Forster 1999, B.M. Fitzgerald, personal communication). It is likely that these North Island specimens represent a new species of Periegops, however this cannot be confirmed until male specimens are examined (Forster & Forster 1999). A female specimen of P. suteri was first collected from “Dyers Pass, Banks Peninsula” by H. Suter on an unknown date and was described by Urquhart (1892). Forster (1995) listed eleven other specimens (four males, five females and two immature specimens) collected between 1915 and 1994. Specimens had been found at Omahu Bush (Rhodes Bush in Forster 1995), Kaituna Valley, Little River, Akaroa and Riccarton Bush. On 27 August 1996, Grace Hall (New Zealand Arthropod Collection, Auckland) and I found a female under a log at “Big Beech”, Hinewai Reserve, near Akaroa. I returned to Hinewai Reserve on 23 January 2000 with Dr Mark Harvey (Western Australian Museum, Perth) and we found a male, a female and two immature specimens. Description Adult P. suteri are approximately 8 mm in body length. They have a reddish brown cephalothorax with black lines extending from the middle of the carapace to the eyes. The legs and abdomen are yellowish brown and there are usually six narrow black chevrons on the dorsal surface of the abdomen. Periegops suteri has six small eyes in