The first record of Hahnia difficilis Harm , 1966 ( Araneae , Hahniidae ) in Poland

Hahnia difficilis was found in Orawa-Nowy Targ Basin (Podhale) and western Sudety Mountains, these are the first records o f this spider species for Poland. Its distribution and typical habitats are discussed. Moreover, Hahnia montana a species closely related to H. difficilis is recorded from the Western Tatra Mountains and a few diagnostic features to distinguish these two species are given.

-H. montana has three deeply black spines on the 'outer' surface, while H. difficilis lacks this character.Even if these spines are broken, three large chaetopores are clearly visible.

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Figs 1-6.Hahnia difficilis, female: 1 , 2 -epigyne, 3 -epigyne, dorsal view; 4, 5 -internal structure of epigyne (two specimens); 6 -distal segments of leg IV.Tins seems to be the most reliable feature to tell apart these two species, however further differences can be listed: the bulb of H. montana is more convex than by H. difficilis: the embolus is longer in H. difficilis and encircles a bulb two and a half time (two times in H. montana): the arrangement of spennophore duct is other -in case of H. montana it begins in the posterior part of a bulb and its distal part is meandering, whereas in H. difficilis spennophore starts at the anterior part of a bulb and its distal part forms the crossing loops (12)(13)(14)(20)(21)(22).According to Miller (1971) H. montana has six small teeth on the tip of tibial apophysis, while in H. difficilis the number of such teeth is lower (4 to 5, as in Fig. 10).In total 34 specimens of H. difficilis were collected in southern Poland: Giant Mountains (Karkonosze), Isera Mountains (Góry Izerskie) and Orawa-Nowy Targ Basin (Kotlina Orawsko-Nowotarska). Spiders were collected by means of standard pitfall traps during the research of spiders' assemblages on different mires (Table 1).In Orawa-Nowy Targ region, H. difficilis was found on raised bogs, both on the apical part of their dome (Fig. 23) and near their margins, and in a pine bog forest.In Karkonosze this species was collected on a very small and highly isolated, subalpine peat bog that is partly overgrown by mountain pine (Piinis mugo Turra; Fig. 24).It was also trapped on a large peat bog, surrounded and overgrown by mountain pine in the Isera Valley (Fig. 25) and on a smaller one -a very similar peat bog, situated in a small saddle, within slopes of the Isera Mountains (Fig. 26).

D i s c u s s i o n
In the other studies, H. difficilis was recorded in fairly similar habitats.According to Hann (1966), it was found in the litter of coniferous and deciduous forests, among moss and on the mires.In the Tatra Mountains H. difficilis inhabited moss of forests (Svaton 1983).It is also considered as a characteristic species for raised bogs (Buchar & Rużićka 2002).
H. difficilis has been reported from nine European countries so far: Austria, Czech Republic, France, Gennany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland (van Helsdingen 2013), so its known range is restricted only to central Europe, but it has not been recorded in Poland up to now.H. difficilis seems to inhabit solely mountainous areas.
The current checklist of Polish spiders (Rozwałka & Stańska 2008) contains seven Hahnia species (Candida Simon, 1875;helveola Simon, 1875;montana (Blackwall, 1841); nava (Blackwall, 1841); ononidum Simon, 1875; pieta Kulczyński, 1897; pusilla C.L. Koch.1841).Kulczyński (1882) described Hahnia parva (later synonimized with H. montana) from the Tatra Mountains, in the vicinity of Stawy Gąsienicowe.Tins record is based solely on a single male.Unfortunately, the type specimen was lost and the original description is insufficient to identify the species with certainty.It is highly plausible that Kulczyński collected the closely related H. difficilis, because the habitats are characteristic for tins species (among moss, beneath mountain pine shrubs).The other records of H. montana in Poland come from Śnieżnik Kłodzki (Pax 1937) -so a long time before Harm's (1966) revision and the description of H. difficilisand Orlickie Mountains (Woźny et al. 1988).The latter record is based on a single male and cannot be verified.H. montana has been recently collected in the Western Tatra Mountains (Niski Upłaz, nearby Czerwony Żleb, 1650 m a.s.l., 49°13'37"N, 19°53'52"E, DV 15, 1 3 Aug 2013, leg.R. Rozwałka).It was found among stones on a rocky slope with mountain pine.In previous studies H. montana was collected in leaf litter of different forests, in moss, among stones, in grasslands (Roberts 1993, Almquist 2005), but it was also found on peat bogs (Schikora 2003, Almquist 2005) and in the mountains: Tatra Mts (Gajdoś 1993, Svaton & Kovalcik 2006) and Karkonosze Mts (Rużićka 2000).The problem of the distribution of H. difficilis and H. montana requires further research.
Hahnia Candida is the other species that occurrence in Poland should be a matter of discussion.There have been four records of this species so far: in Karkonosze Mts (Dahl 1937, Pilawski 1962), Orlickie Mts.(Woźny et al. 1988) and Białowieża Forest (NE-Poland, Karpiński 1956).Despite subsequent intensive field studies in these areas (Staręga & Kupryjanowicz 2001, Rozwałka unpub., Wiśniewski unpub.) it has never been found again.The material of H. Candida from Poland is not available, the earlier records might have been misidentifications.
A c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s These studies were carried out with permissions of the Karkonosze National Park, the Ministry of Environment, Regional Directorate for Environmental Protection in Wroclaw.We would like to thank Mr Włodzimierz Cichocki from the Muzeum Tatrzańskie for his help in collecting the part of the material.

Table 1 .
Data on the studied material of Hahnia difficilis.