Bibliographic checklist of Korean spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) ver. 2015

The 2015 version of the bibliographic checklist of Korean spiders from the first checklist by Paik and Kim (1956) is presented, together with a complete bibliography of relevant Korean araneological literature. A total of 620 publications during 1907-2015 including original description on the Korean spiders and records of taxonomic description were critically reviewed. Records only from locations within the present borders of South Korea are listed. A total of 748 spider species of 271 genera belonging to 46 families are confirmed to exist in Korea. Twenty one species, whose distribution or existence within the Korean border are uncertain and lacked valid records, are excluded from the present list pending critical validation. Four spider species endemic to North Korean are listed separately from the present list. One genus, Joopilia Chae and Sohn, 2013 and 2 species, Joopilia jooplis Chae and Sohn, 2013 and Dolomedes jirisanensis Kim and Chae, 2012, which had no designated type species and no diagnosis, are cited as nomina nuda. New synonyms of 15 previously described spider species are proposed. Based on their zoogeographical distribution, the Korean spider fauna was found to be influenced by the northern species, including 36 Holarctic and 72 Palearctic species (14.5% of the total species). Korean endemic species include 160 species (21.5% of the total species). Korean indigenous spiders are also distributed in neighboring countries: 318 species in Russia (42.7%), 460 in China (61.7%), and 488 in Japan (65.5%).