Arachnura feredayi

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Arachnura feredayi
Arachnura feredayi 6208070.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Infraorder: Araneomorphae
Family: Araneidae
Genus: Arachnura
Species:
A. ferdayi
Binomial name
Arachnura ferdayi
(L. Koch, 1871)
Synonyms

Arachnura longicauda Urquhart, 1885
Arachnura longicauda nigritia Urquhart, 1885
Arachnura obtusa Urquhart, 1885

Contents

Arachnura feredayi, the tailed forest spider or scorpion-tailed spider [1] , is endemic to New Zealand. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] It is known for the distinctive tapering body shape in females, which are also much larger than males, and for producing vertical columns of egg sacs in their webs. [6]

Arachnura ferdayi

Arachnura feredayi females reach up to 18 mm in length, with about a third of that length consisting of a distinct tail-end to their abdomen which is shaped like an autumn leaf or dead wood. [7] [8] The female is six times bigger than the male. [8] Males are about 2 mm long, lack the female's 'tail' and are coloured in shades of brown. [9] Female Arachnura feredayi colouring is variable, with yellow or yellow-green variants common. [10]

This species is most similar to Arachnura higginsi from Australia, but the two species can be separated by structural differences in the male palp and female epigynum. [9] Arachnura higginsi has also been reported as making aggregations of distinct but connected webs, but this has not been observed in A. feredayi. [10]

Geographic range

Arachnura feredayi is endemic to New Zealand and is found in Manawatāwhi / Three Kings Islands, the North Island and the South Island. [11] These spiders are found in forests and gardens. [12]

Habitat

Arachnura feredayi can be found in the native forests of New Zealand and sometimes in gardens. [13] In comparison to other orb web spiders, they tend to build their webs closer to ground between some dead leaf branches, bushes and shrubs. Spiders make an orb web, usually close to the ground. This web always has a V-shaped sector in the 12 o'clock position that is empty of spiral threads. [14]

Life cycle

Male A. feredayi will hide on the outskirt of the orb web in the irregular threads during the reproductive season. [15] Males vibrate a radial thread to approach to the female and mating occurs in a mating thread built next to the middle of the web. [15] After the reproduction, the male may be consumed by the female. [15]

Females deposit egg sacs in a vertical column in the 12 o'clock position, resembling a chain of sausage links. [16] Chains of eggs can have up to fifty eggs. [15] The newest egg sac is located nearest to the web's central hub and the female rebuilds her web every time she produces a new egg sac in order to maintain this positioning. [14] [15] Egg sacs are brown to provide camouflage. [15] Females stay directly below the egg sacs. [15]

Other information

Arachnura feredeyi was originally described by L. Koch in 1872 under the genus Epeira. [17] It is the sole member of the genus recorded from New Zealand. [18] Urquhart described several species of Arachnura but these were synonmised (see Synonyms) by Bryant in 1933. [18] The Australian and New Zealand species of Arachnura were revised by Castanheira et al. in 2019. [18]

This species has been listed as Not Threatened under the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS). [19]

Related Research Articles

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Orb-weaver spiders are members of the spider family Araneidae. They are the most common group of builders of spiral wheel-shaped webs often found in gardens, fields, and forests. The English word "orb" can mean "circular", hence the English name of the group. Araneids have eight similar eyes, hairy or spiny legs, and no stridulating organs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian garden orb weaver spider</span> Species of spider

The Australian garden orb weaver spider is a very common species of spider with many variants in size, shape, and colour across the coastal and northern regions of Australia. They have very large abdomens when well-fed and exhibit a tremendous colour-range from off-white through tan, brown to almost black. They have a roughly leaf-shaped pattern on the top of their abdomen with a complex outline that is darker than the surrounding area. There may also be several whitish spots or one or more stripes. The spiders' cephalothoraxes (heads) and proximal leg segments are usually darker, mostly reddish or reddish brown. They are able to change their colour with each moult to better match the background upon which they rest during the day.

<i>Argiope protensa</i> Species of spider

Argiope protensa, commonly known as the tailed grass spider or teardrop spider, is a species of spider in the orb weaver family, Araneidae. This species is fairly common and widespread in Australasia, but like many spider species, little is known of its ecology, biology, or life history.

<i>Arachnura melanura</i> Species of spider

Arachnura melanura, also known as scorpion tailed orb-weaver, black tail spider and drag tail spider is a species of spider in the family Araneidae. It ranges from India to Japan to Sulawesi. It camouflages itself by mimicking fallen flowers, dead leaves and twigs. It replaces the capture spiral of its web daily.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyrtophorinae</span> Subfamily of spiders

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<i>Socca pustulosa</i> Species of arachnid

Socca pustulosa, known as the knobbled orbweaver, is an orb-weaver spider species in the family Araneidae, and it was first described by a French scientist Charles Athanase Walckenaer in 1841 from Tasmania, Australia, but later on when Walckenaer examined the specimen collected from New Zealand and renamed it as a different species- Epeira verrucosa. Until 1917, Dalmas reviewed the Australian pustulosa and New Zealand verrucosa and realized they were the same species. Although S. pustulosa has been accepted for some time in the genus of Eriophora, the evidence supporting its placement within this genus were not fully convincing. Therefore, an alternative view was proposed in 2022- a new genus established to accommodate pustulosa along with 11 other spider species from Australia; the diagnostic test based on haplotype analysis and systematic morphology study by arachnologists and found the anatomical features of male pedipalp terminal apophysis differs from other orb-web species.

<i>Backobourkia</i> Genus of spiders

Backobourkia is a genus of South Pacific orb-weaver spiders first described by Volker Framenau, Nadine Dupérré, Todd Blackledge & Cor Vink in 2010. It is a common Australian spider, closely related to Eriophora and placed in the "coxal hook clade" of the Araneinae subfamily of Araneidae. Females are generally the same size among all species, but males are much smaller, suggesting male dwarfism throughout the genus. The genus name is a play on the well-known Australian idiom, "Back of Bourke", meaning very remote and beyond the limits of civilization.

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<i>Colaranea melanoviridis</i> Species of spider

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<i>Acroaspis decorosa</i> Species of spider

Acroaspis decorosa is a species of orbweaver spider that is endemic to New Zealand.

Arthur Torrane Urquhart (1839–1919) was an arachnologist and naturalist based in New Zealand.

<i>Novakiella trituberculosa</i> Genus of spiders

Novakiella trituberculosa is a species of South Pacific orb-weaver spiders, found in Australia and New Zealand.

Volker W. Framenau is a German-born Australian arachnologist and entomologist.

<i>Hortophora</i> Genus of spiders

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<i>Salsa</i> (spider) Genus of orb-weaver spiders

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<i>Salsa fuliginata</i> Spider in the Salsa genus

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References

  1. 1 2 Castanheira, Pedro DE S.; Didham, Raphael K.; Vink, Cor J.; Framenau, Volker W. (2019-12-06). "The scorpion-tailed orb-weaving spiders (Araneae, Araneidae, Arachnura) in Australia and New Zealand". Zootaxa. 4706 (1): 147–170. doi:10.11646/ZOOTAXA.4706.1.6. PMID   32230556. S2CID   214008307.
  2. ↑ "Arachnura feredayi (L. Koch, 1871)". New Zealand Organisms Register. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  3. ↑ Paquin, Pierre (2010). Spiders of New Zealand : annotated family key & species list. Lincoln, N.Z.: Manaaki Whenua Press. ISBN   978-0-478-34705-0.
  4. ↑ "Tailed Forest Spider (Arachnura feredayi)". iNaturalist. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  5. ↑ "Arachnura feredayi (L. Koch, 1871)". Atlas of Living Australia. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  6. ↑ Forster, Raymond Robert; Forster, Lyndsay McLaren (1999-01-01). Spiders of New Zealand and their Worldwide Kin. Otago University Press, Otago Museum.
  7. ↑ Etherington, Thomas; Peltzer, Duane; Wyse, Sarah (2022-01-31). "Future climates are predicted to alter the potential distributions of non-native conifer species in New Zealand". New Zealand Journal of Ecology. doi: 10.20417/nzjecol.46.14 . ISSN   0110-6465.
  8. 1 2 Golding, Clinton; Adam, Lee; Scott, Carole; Acheson, Carole; Johnson, Karen; Brook, Pauline; McLean, Angela; Smith, Neil; Kumar, Margaret; Hunter, Carol; Kumar, Vijay (2015-12-23). "Fix, build, diagnose or guide? Evaluating the metaphors for Learning Advisors". Association of Tertiary Learning Advisors Aotearoa/New Zealand Journal. 1 (1): 1–15. doi:10.26473/atlaanz.2015.1.1/001.
  9. 1 2 Castanheira, Pedro DE S.; Didham, Raphael K.; Vink, Cor J.; Framenau, Volker W. (2019-12-06). "The scorpion-tailed orb-weaving spiders (Araneae, Araneidae, Arachnura) in Australia and New Zealand". Zootaxa. 4706 (1): 147–170. doi:10.11646/ZOOTAXA.4706.1.6. PMID   32230556. S2CID   214008307.
  10. 1 2 Forster, Raymond Robert; Forster, Lyndsay McLaren (1999-01-01). Spiders of New Zealand and their Worldwide Kin. Otago University Press, Otago Museum.
  11. ↑ Castanheira, Pedro DE S.; Didham, Raphael K.; Vink, Cor J.; Framenau, Volker W. (2019-12-06). "The scorpion-tailed orb-weaving spiders (Araneae, Araneidae, Arachnura) in Australia and New Zealand". Zootaxa. 4706 (1): 147–170. doi:10.11646/ZOOTAXA.4706.1.6. PMID   32230556. S2CID   214008307.
  12. ↑ Pollard, Simon; Sirvid, Philip John (2021-01-01). Why is that Spider Dancing? The Amazing Arachnids of Aotearoa. Te Papa Press.
  13. ↑ Framenau, Volker W.; Vink, Cor J.; McQuillan, Bryce N.; Simpson, Angela H. (2021-08-03). "A new genus for a large, endemic orb-weaving spider (Araneae, Araneidae) from New Zealand". New Zealand Journal of Zoology. 49 (2): 129–142. doi:10.1080/03014223.2021.1951309. ISSN   0301-4223.
  14. 1 2 Forster, Raymond Robert; Forster, Lyndsay McLaren (1999-01-01). Spiders of New Zealand and their Worldwide Kin. Otago University Press, Otago Museum.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Golding, Clinton; Adam, Lee; Scott, Carole; Acheson, Carole; Johnson, Karen; Brook, Pauline; McLean, Angela; Smith, Neil; Kumar, Margaret; Hunter, Carol; Kumar, Vijay (2015-12-23). "Fix, build, diagnose or guide? Evaluating the metaphors for Learning Advisors". Association of Tertiary Learning Advisors Aotearoa/New Zealand Journal. 1 (1): 1–15. doi:10.26473/atlaanz.2015.1.1/001.
  16. ↑ Pollard, Simon; Sirvid, Philip John (2021-01-01). Why is that Spider Dancing? The Amazing Arachnids of Aotearoa. Te Papa Press.
  17. ↑ "Die Arachniden Australiens nach der Natur beschrieben und abgebildet". www.wikidata.org. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  18. 1 2 3 Castanheira, Pedro DE S.; Didham, Raphael K.; Vink, Cor J.; Framenau, Volker W. (2019-12-06). "The scorpion-tailed orb-weaving spiders (Araneae, Araneidae, Arachnura) in Australia and New Zealand". Zootaxa. 4706 (1): 147–170. doi:10.11646/ZOOTAXA.4706.1.6. PMID   32230556. S2CID   214008307.
  19. ↑ Sirvid, P. J.; Vink, C. J.; Fitzgerald, B. M.; Wakelin, M. D.; Rolfe, J.; Michel, P. (2020-01-01). "Conservation status of New Zealand Araneae (spiders), 2020". New Zealand Threat Classification Series. 34: 1–37.
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