South African National Survey of Arachnida Photo Identification Guide: The Sparassidae of South Africa.

The family Sparassidae is a large family comprising 83 genera of which 34 are known from the Afrotropical Region. From South Africa nine genera represented by 49 species. Some of the descriptive work was done by Lawrence who described three new genera and nine new species (World Spider Catalog 2022)  from South Africa. Croeser (1996) revised the genus Palystes L. Koch, 1875 and described the genus Parapalystes Croeser, 1996. Jäger and Kunz (2005) published a key to African genera of Sparassidae and a few years later (2010) they described Palystes kreuzmanni. Jäger (2020) provided new information on Olios Walckenaer, 1837.  Moradmand (2013) revised the African species of the genus Eusparassus Simon, 1903, and described three new species  from South Africa. Jäger (2014) described the female of Olios sjostedti Lessert, 1921 and recorded the species for the first time from southern Africa. In 2015 Moradmand  revised the genus Pseudomicrommata Järvi, 1914 and recognized two species from South Africa with Jäger & Krehenwinkel (2015) adding a new genus of huntsman spiders, May  with one species from South Africa. Of the 49 known species the majority have a wide distribution and are listed as Least Concern, 18 are Data Deficient and  only three species are of special concern. Palystes kreuzmanni Jäger & Kunz, 2010 is listed as Endangered under criterion B; Palystes martinfilmeri Croeser, 1996is as Rare and Panaretella distincta (Pocock, 1896) as Near Threatened under criterion B.