New records of spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) from Azerbaijan, including the first record of Nephilidae from the Western Palaearctic

New faunistic data on spiders of Azerbaijan are presented. Thirteen species are recorded from this country for the first time: Araniella villanii Zamani, Marusik & Šestáková, 2020 (Araneidae), Cesonia aspida Chatzaki, 2002, Civizelotes solstitialis (Levy, 1998), Cryptodrassus hungaricus (Balogh, 1935), Gnaphosa cumensis Ponomarev, 1981, G. ukrainica Ovtsharenko, Platnick & Song, 1992, Micaria atropatene Zamani & Marusik, 2021, Trichothyse senilis (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1872), Turkozelotes attavirus Chatzaki, 2019 (all Gnaphosidae), Trichonephila clavata (L. Koch, 1878) (Nephilidae), Neottiura uncinata (Lucas, 1846), Paidiscura pallens (Blackwall, 1834) (both Theridiidae), and Xysticus edax (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1872) (Thomisidae); the genera Cesonia Simon, 1893 and Trichonephila Dahl, 1911 are newly recorded from the Caucasus.

The record of T. clavata represents the first documented introduction of this family in the Western Palaearctic. Keywords: introduced species • Nephilinae • South Caucasus