Calommata

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Calommata
Calommata signata 436313500.jpg
C. signata in burrow (Japan)
Calommata megae - Calommata species (cropped).jpg
C. megae
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Infraorder: Mygalomorphae
Family: Atypidae
Genus: Calommata
Lucas, 1837 [1]
Type species
C. fulvipes
(Lucas, 1835)
Species

16, see text

Calommata is a genus of purseweb spiders first described by Hippolyte Lucas in 1837. [2]

Contents

Description

The carapace is glabrous and yellowish brown with darker stains on the cephalic region. The cephalic region is strongly arched, and the fovea is deep and bipartite. Eight eyes are situated on a compact transverse tubercle near the fovea. [3]

The opisthosoma is dull greyish brown to yellowish brown with an irregularly shaped dorsal sclerite. The legs are pale yellowish brown, with leg I greatly reduced in size, especially the femur in females. Males have longer and more slender legs than females. The legs lack spines but have small spinules, and the tarsal claws are raised on a common process. Female pedipalps have the tibiae and tarsi slightly flattened. [3]

Behavior and ecology

Calommata species construct silk-lined burrows 25-30 cm deep with the top part excavated to form a small surface chamber that is crater-like in shape. Their burrows are slightly raised above the ground and neatly rounded off from the inner rim, gradually sloping outwards and downwards to ground level. The outer surface is covered by earth that resembles the surroundings. [4]

Distribution and species

The genus has a wide distribution across Africa and Asia. The African species were revised by Fourie et al. (2011). [3]

Species

As of September 2025 it contains sixteen species: [1]

References

  1. 1 2 "Gen. Calommata Lucas, 1837". World Spider Catalog. Natural History Museum Bern. 2022. doi:10.24436/2 . Retrieved 2025-09-19.
  2. Lucas, H. (1837). "Observations sur les aranéides du genre Pachyloscelis, et synonymie de ce genre". Annales de la Société Entomologique de France. 6: 369–392.
  3. 1 2 3 Fourie, R.; Haddad, C.R.; Jocqué, R. (2011). "A revision of the purse-web spider genus Calommata Lucas, 1837 (Araneae, Atypidae) in the Afrotropical region". ZooKeys (95): 1–28. Bibcode:2011ZooK...95....1F. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.95.745 . PMC   3095129 . PMID   21594067. Creative Commons by small.svg  This article incorporates textfrom this source, which is available under the CC BY 4.0 license.
  4. Dippenaar-Schoeman, A.S.; Haddad, C.R.; Foord, S.H.; Lotz, L.N. (2020). "South African National Survey of Arachnida Photo Identification Guide: The Atypidae of South Africa". Version 1: 1–7. doi:10.5281/zenodo.6032638. Creative Commons by small.svg  This article incorporates text available under the CC BY 4.0 license.