Pennsylvania purse-web spider was introduced from Asia
I am a coauthor of a recent PLoS One paper that unmasks the Pennsylvania purse-web spider, Atypus snetsingeri Sarno, 1973, as an introduced population of the Asian species Atypus karschi Dönitz, 1887.
Řezáč M, Tessler S, Heneberg P, Herrera IMÁ, Gloríková N, Forman M, Řezáčová V, Král J. Atypus karschi Dönitz, 1887 (Araneae: Atypidae): An Asian purse-web spider established in Pennsylvania, USA. PLoS One. 2022 Jul 7;17(7):e0261695. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0261695.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0261695
I sent the paper to The World Spider Catalog and they have officially made the change. https://wsc.nmbe.ch/species/5491 - A. karschi includes 'snetsingeri as a synonym
https://wsc.nmbe.ch/species/5503/Atypus_snetsingeri - synonym of A. karschi
