Gasteracantha westringi

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Gasteracantha westringi
Gasteracantha gambeyi 01.JPG
G. westringi in New Caledonia
Gasteracantha westringi Koch 1871.png
Scientific illustration (Koch 1871)
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Infraorder: Araneomorphae
Family: Araneidae
Genus: Gasteracantha
Species:
G. westringi
Binomial name
Gasteracantha westringi
Keyserling, 1864 [1]

Gasteracantha westringi is a species of spiny orb-weaver spider in the genus Gasteracantha . [1] It is found in Australasia, including New Caledonia and Norfolk Island, and it has a wing-shaped abdomen armed with red and black spines.

Contents

Description

Female G. westringi have hard, shell-like abdomens that are about three times as wide (about 13 millimeters, without spines) as long (4 millimeters) and are flared upward at each end like a pair of wings. Their abdomens bear three pairs of spines. The front (anterior) pair are short, about 1 millimeter long, black, and point slightly forward. The middle (median) pair are black at the base and red for much of their length, with black tips. These median spines are about 4.5 millimeters long and curve back and slightly downward. The rear pair of spines are about 2 millimeters long. [2] [3] [4]

Female abdomens are marked with depressed black sigilla. Above, the front edge of the abdomen bears 10 sigilla in a curved row, the middle four relatively small and the outermost large and egg-shaped; the larger outer sigilla are also visible on the underside of the abdomen. Four sigilla form a trapezoid in the center of the upper abdomen, and another row traces the posterior edge. The sigilla may be surrounded by a pale yellow color. [2] [3] [4]

The male of this species has not been scientifically described. [1]

Taxonomy and distribution

The first scientific description of this species by Keyserling in 1864 did not include a place of origin for the species. [2]

In 1865 and 1871, similar descriptions were published based on specimens from New Caledonia (as G. laeta) and Australia. [3] [4] In 1871, Koch also described a species from New Caledonia that he called G. mollusca, noting that it the specimen may have been a freshly molted individual. [4] In 1889, A.T. Urquhart published a description of an orb-weaver from Norfolk Island, which he named G. ocillatum, noting its close similarity to G. westringi but not explaining why it warranted species status. [5]

In 1914, Friedrich Dahl provisionally united all these descriptions under G. westringi, noting that further research across the region was needed to clarify the status of different forms. [6]

In 1911, Embrik Strand briefly named a species, G. wogeonis, from Vokeo in the Schouten Islands (Papua New Guinea), writing that it was separable from G. westringi by shorter spines and smaller sigilla. [7] Apparently based on this comment, Dahl also provisionally synonymized G. wogeonis with G. westringi, without specific comment. [6] However, in 1915, Strand published a more detailed description and an illustration of G. wogeonis that depicted a small-spined, reddish-colored, less elongate form quite unlike any other description of taxa included by Dahl in G. westringi. [8]

Gasteracantha westringi was featured on a 2004 Norfolk Island postage stamp series. The stamp series stated that the species is locally known as the red-horned spider and is commonly found on Norfolk and nearby Phillip Island. [9] [10]

See also

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<i>Austracantha</i> Genus of spiders

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Spiny orb-weaver

Gasteracantha is a genus of orb-weaver spiders first named by Carl Jakob Sundevall in 1833. The females of most species are brightly colored with six prominent spines on their broad, hardened, shell-like abdomens. The name Gasteracantha is derived from the Greek gaster (γαστήρ), meaning "belly, abdomen", and akantha (άκανθα), meaning "thorn, spine". Spiny-backed orb-weavers are sometimes colloquially called "crab spiders" because of their shape, but they are not closely related to the true crab spiders. Other colloquial names for certain species include thorn spider, star spider, kite spider, or jewel spider.

<i>Gasteracantha versicolor</i> Species of spider

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<i>Gasteracantha remifera</i> Species of spider

Gasteracantha remifera is a species of spiny orb-weaver spider in the genus Gasteracantha. It is found in Sri Lanka and India, and it has a pair of long, club-shaped spines on its abdomen.

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<i>Gasteracantha kuhli</i> Species of arachnid

Gasteracantha kuhli is a species of spiny orb-weaver spider in the genus Gasteracantha, widespread from India to Japan, the Philippines, and Java in Indonesia. It is known as the black-and-white spiny spider.

<i>Gasteracantha clavatrix</i> Species of arachnid

Gasteracantha clavatrix is a species of spider of the genus Gasteracantha. It occurs in Indonesia.

<i>Gasteracantha clavigera</i> Species of arachnid

Gasteracantha clavigera is a species of spider in the spiny orb-weaver genus Gasteracantha.

<i>Gasteracantha diardi</i> Species of arachnid

Gasteracantha diardi is a species of spider in the spiny orb-weaver genus Gasteracantha. It occurs in Southeast Asia.

<i>Gasteracantha mengei</i> Species of arachnid

Gasteracantha mengei is a species of spider in the spiny orb-weaver genus Gasteracantha. Its range includes Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Borneo, and Sumatra in Indonesia.

<i>Gasteracantha quadrispinosa</i> Species of arachnid

Gasteracantha quadrispinosa, the four-spined jewel spider, is a brightly coloured species of spider in the spiny orb-weaver genus Gasteracantha. It occurs in wet forests of Queensland, Australia, and New Guinea, where it builds vertical orb webs approximately 1.5 m across and hangs in the centre of the web to wait for prey.

<i>Gasteracantha gambeyi</i> Species of spider

Gasteracantha gambeyi is a species of spiny orb-weaver spider in the genus Gasteracantha. It was described from New Caledonia.

Gasteracantha flava is a species of spider described in 1849 from Chile. The spider's abdomen bears 14 spines and is yellow in color with brown or black sigilla and a strongly wrinkled ventral side. The World Spider Catalog currently treats this taxon as a spiny orb-weaver spider in the genus Gasteracantha. In 1849, H. Nicolet included it in the genus Gasteracantha along with 18 other species he described from Chile. Nicolet described G. flava as being closely allied to another species described at the same time, Gasteracantha spissa, which had the same number and shape of spines and was very similar. Subsequent authors refined Nicolet's species, and in a 1996 publication Herbert Levi wrote, "All Nicolet's species seem to belong in Phoroncidia (Theridiidae)." Levi transferred the 14-spined taxon spissa, described by Nicolet as very similar to G. flava, to the genus Phoroncidia, creating the new combination Phoroncidia spissa. However, Levi did not explicitly address G. flava, so it remains in Gasteracantha as of November 2019, though its purported sister species now belongs to Phoroncidia and no other Gasteracantha species has more than six spines.

<i>Gasteracantha interrupta</i> Species of spider

Gasteracantha interrupta is a species of spiny orb-weaver spider in the genus Gasteracantha. It is black and white in color, and it occurs in the Lesser Sundas and Sulawesi in Indonesia.

<i>Gasteracantha recurva</i> Species of spider

Gasteracantha recurva is a species of spiny orb-weaver spider in the genus Gasteracantha. It was described from Manila, Philippines in 1877.

<i>Gasteracantha hecata</i> Species of arachnid

Gasteracantha hecata is a species of spider in the spiny orb-weaver genus Gasteracantha. It occurs in the Philippines and has prominent horn-like spines on its abdomen.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Gasteracantha westringi". World Spider Catalog. Natural History Museum Bern. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 Keyserling, E. (1864). "Beschreibungen neuer und wenig bekannter Arten aus der Familie Orbitelae Latr. oder Epeiridae Sund". Sitzungsberichte und Abhandlungen der Naturwissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft Isis in Dresden. 1863: 66.
  3. 1 2 3 Fauvel, A. (1865). "Description et figure d'une aranéïde inédite de la Nouvelle Calédonie". Bulletin de la Société Linnéenne de Normandie. 9: 68–69.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Koch, L. (1871). Die Arachniden Australiens, nach der Natur beschrieben und abgebildet. [Erster Theil]. Nürnberg: Bauer & Raspe. pp. 3–5.
  5. ↑ Urquhart, A.T. (1889). "On a new species of Gasteracantha from Norfolk Island". Transactions of the New Zealand Institute. 21: 152–154.
  6. 1 2 Dahl, F. (1914). "Die Gasteracanthen des Berliner Zoologischen Museums und deren geographische Verbreitung". Mitteilungen aus dem Zoologischen Museum in Berlin. 7: 244–245.
  7. ↑ Strand, E. (1911). "Vorläufige Diagnosen neuer Spinnen, insbesondere aus der Südsee, des Senckenbergischen Museums". Archiv für Naturgeschichte. 77 (I, 2): 205.
  8. ↑ Strand, E. (1915). "Indoaustralische, papuanische und polynesische Spinnen des Senckenbergischen Museums, gesammelt von Dr E. Wolf, Dr J. Elbert u. a. In: Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse der Hanseatischen Südsee-Expedition 1909". Abhandlungen der Senckenbergischen Naturforschenden Gesellschaft. 36 (2): 231–232.
  9. ↑ "Norfolk Island Philatelic Stamps 2004". Norfolk Island Philatelic Bureau. Norfolk Island Philatelic Bureau. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  10. ↑ "Norfolk Island Postage Stamps". Biology on Postage Stamps. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
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