Howaia

Howaia
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Infraorder:	Araneomorphae
Family:	Nesticidae
Genus:	HowaiaLehtinen & Saaristo, 1980[1]
Type species
Nesticus mogera Yaginuma, 1972
Species
10, see text

Howaia is a genus of spiders in the family Nesticidae.^[2]

Distribution

Howaia is found in China, Korea, and Japan.^[2]

Taxonomy

The genus was reinstated by Sherwood et al. in 2023.^[3]

Species

As of January 2026, this genus includes ten species:^[2]

• Howaia albaBallarin & Eguchi, 2023 – Japan (Ryukyu Islands)
• Howaia apiculata(Liu & Li, 2013) – China
• Howaia fuliangensis(Lin, Ballarin & Li, 2016) – China
• Howaia huomachongensis(Lin, Ballarin & Li, 2016) – China
• Howaia mogera(Yaginuma, 1972) – China, Korea, Japan. Introduced to St. Helena, Europe, Azerbaijan, Pacific islands
• Howaia rongtangensis(Lin, Ballarin & Li, 2016) – China
• Howaia subterraneaBallarin & Eguchi, 2023 – Japan (Ryukyu Islands)
• Howaia wanzaiensis(Lin, Ballarin & Li, 2016) – China
• Howaia yanbeiensis(Lin, Ballarin & Li, 2016) – China
• Howaia yintiaoling(Wang, Zheng & Zhang, 2022) – China

References

1. Lehtinen, P. T.; Saaristo, M. I. (1980). "Spiders of the Oriental-Australian region. II. Nesticidae". Annales Zoologici Fennici. 17: 47–66.
2. "Gen. Howaia Lehtinen & Saaristo, 1980". World Spider Catalog. Retrieved 2026-01-20.
3. Sherwood, D.; Jocqué, R.; Henrard, A.; Fowler, L. (2023). "The scaffold web spider Nesticus helenensis Hubert, 1977, a junior synonym of Howaia mogera (Yaginuma, 1972) rest. comb., with revalidation of Howaia Lehtinen & Saaristo, 1980 (Araneae: Nesticidae)". Zootaxa. 5306: 397–400. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.5306.3.8.