| Pandava laminata | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Female | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae |
| Infraorder: | Araneomorphae |
| Family: | Titanoecidae |
| Genus: | Pandava |
| Species: | P. laminata |
| Binomial name | |
| Pandava laminata (Thorell, 1878) [1] | |
| Synonyms [1] | |
| |
Padava laminata is a species of araneomorph spider in the family Titanoecidae. It is widely distributed from East Africa through China to New Guinea and the Marquesas Islands.
Pandava laminata has a brownish body and legs with a much paler abdomen and darker brown chelicerae (fangs). Males have more varied colouring than females, with darker brown around the head area and yellowish brown on the sternum as well as on the second to fourth pairs of legs. Females range from about 6–8 mm in total body length, males being slightly smaller at about 5.5–6 mm. Like all titanoecids, males have a complex projection (apophysis) on the tibia of their palps, with three main parts (lobes). In Pandava laminata males the lobe closest to the spider's mouth (the prolateral lobe) is undivided and short. The female epigyne is semi-circular; the anterior rims are longer than their distance apart. [2]
Padava laminata is native to Tanzania, Kenya, Madagascar, Sri Lanka through China to New Guinea and the Marquesas Islands. It has been introduced to Germany and Hungary. [1] In Germany it was discovered for the first time at Cologne Zoo. The species was most likely introduced with plants or cargo from Southeast Asia. [3]
Wolf spiders are members of the family Lycosidae. They are robust and agile hunters with excellent eyesight. They live mostly in solitude, hunt alone, and do not spin webs. Some are opportunistic hunters, pouncing upon prey as they find it or chasing it over short distances; others wait for passing prey in or near the mouth of a burrow.
Latrodectus is a broadly distributed genus of spiders with several species that are commonly known as the true widows. This group is composed of those often loosely called black widow spiders, brown widow spiders, and similar spiders. However, such general "common names" are of limited use, as the diversity of species is much greater. A member of the family Theridiidae, this genus contains 34 species, which include several North American "black widows". Besides these, North America also has the red widow Latrodectus bishopi and the brown widow Latrodectus geometricus, which, in addition to North America, has a much wider geographic distribution. Elsewhere, others include the European black widow, the Australian redback black widow and the closely-related New Zealand katipō, several different species in Southern Africa that can be called Button spiders, and the South American black-widow spiders. Species vary widely in size. In most cases, the females are dark-coloured, but some may have lighter or even reddish bodies. Many can have red, white or brown markings on the upper-side (dorsal) of the abdomen. Some can be readily identifiable by reddish markings on the central underside (ventral) abdomen, which are often hourglass-shaped.
Nursery web spiders (Pisauridae) is a family of araneomorph spiders first described by Eugène Simon in 1890. They resemble wolf spiders (Lycosidae) except for several key differences. Wolf spiders have two very prominent eyes in addition to the other six, while a nursery web spider's eyes are all about the same size. Additionally, female nursery web spiders carry their egg sacs with their jaws and pedipalps instead of attaching them to their spinnerets as wolf spiders do. When the eggs are about to hatch, a female spider builds a nursery "tent", places her egg sac inside, and stands guard outside, hence the family's common name. Like the wolf spiders, however, the nursery web spiders are roaming hunters that don't use webs for catching prey.
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.
Liocranidae is a family of araneomorph spiders first described by Eugène Simon in 1897. They are one of several groups called "sac spiders". The holarctic genus Agroeca is the best-known, but it also includes various genera of more obscure spiders that still lack a diagnosis. Two species in the North American genus Neoanagraphis are found in the extremely dry conditions in the Mojave, Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts. Females live in animal burrows while males wander and are the ones most often caught in pitfall traps.
Titanoecidae is a family of araneomorph spiders first described by Pekka T. Lehtinen in 1967. It is fairly widespread in the New World and Eurasia with five genera and more than 50 species worldwide. These are mostly dark-colored builders of "woolly" (cribellate) silk webs. Several species are found at relatively high altitudes in mountain ranges and may be very common in such habitats.
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.
Margaromma is a spider genus of the jumping spider family, Salticidae. The eight described species occur mostly in Australia and New Zealand, with several other species on Pacific islands. One species is found in Cameroon.
Piranthus is a genus of jumping spiders first described in 1895 by Tamerlan Thorell, who derived the name from Greek mythology. As of February 2019 this genus contains only two species.
Plexippus is a genus of jumping spiders that was first described by Carl Ludwig Koch in 1846. It is considered a senior synonym of Hissarinus and Apamamia.
Viciria is a genus of jumping spiders that was first described by Tamerlan Thorell in 1877. The genus includes thirty-one accepted species.
Psechridae is a family of araneomorph spiders with about 70 species in two genera. These are among the biggest cribellate spiders with body lengths up to 2 centimetres (0.79 in) and funnel webs more than 1 metre in diameter.
The Artoriinae are a subfamily of wolf spiders. The monophyly of the subfamily has been confirmed in a molecular phylogenetic study, although the relationships among the subfamilies was shown to be less certain.
Cyriopagopus is a genus of southeast Asian tarantulas found from Myanmar to the Philippines. As of March 2017, the genus includes species formerly placed in Haplopelma. It was first described by Eugène Louis Simon in 1887.
Pandava is a genus of araneomorph spiders in the family Titanoecidae.
Epidius is a genus of crab spiders that was first described by Tamerlan Thorell in 1877. It is a senior synonym of Pothaeus.
Halonoproctidae is a family of mygalomorph spiders, split off from the family Ctenizidae in 2018. Species in the family are widely distributed in North and Central America, Australasia, Asia, southern Europe and North Africa. One species is recorded from Venezuela in South America. They are relatively large, sombrely coloured spiders, that live in burrows with some kind of trapdoor.
Cyrtarachne inaequalis is a species of spider in the orb-weaver spider family Araneidae, found in India, Myanmar, China and Korea. Spiders in the genus Cyrtarachne construct "spanning-thread webs" rather than the more typical orb webs of the family Araneidae. These webs have a small number of radii and instead of a tight spiral of sticky threads, the sticky spanning threads are widely spaced and do not form a spiral. When prey is caught on one of the spanning threads, one end comes loose, and the prey, often a moth, dangles from the other end until hauled in by the spider.
Ordgarius sexspinosus is a species of spider in the orb-weaver spider family Araneidae, found from India to Japan and Indonesia. O. sexspinosus is a bolas spider. Rather than using a web, adult females catch their prey by using a line with one or two sticky drops which they swing.