Paraplectana

Paraplectana
Female P. tsushimensis
P. thorntoni
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Infraorder:	Araneomorphae
Family:	Araneidae
Subfamily:	Cyrtarachninae s.l.
Genus:	Paraplectana Brito Capello, 1867 [1]
Type species
P. thorntoni (Blackwall, 1865)
Species
13, see text

Paraplectana is a genus of Asian and African orb-weaver spiders first described by F. de Brito Capello in 1867. ^[2]

Description

• 
  Paraplectana sp. from South Africa
• 
• 

See also: Glossary of spider terms

Paraplectana is distinguished by its round body and bright colour. Total length is 11–16 mm in females. In contrast with the uniformly pale brown carapace, the abdomen is shiny with bright red, yellow or orange patches on a dark background, resembling a ladybird beetle. The round abdomen almost completely covers the carapace. Their thin legs are arranged around the carapace. ^[3]

Males are still unknown for the genus. ^[3]

Species

• 
  P. rajashree from India

As of September 2025 ^[update] , this genus includes thirteen species: ^[1]

• Paraplectana coccinella (Thorell, 1890) – Myanmar, Indonesia (Nias Is.)
• Paraplectana duodecimmaculata Simon, 1897 – Indonesia (Java)
• Paraplectana gravelyi (Tikader, 1961) – India
• Paraplectana hemisphaerica (C. L. Koch, 1844) – Sierra Leone
• Paraplectana kittenbergeri Caporiacco, 1947 – Tanzania
• Paraplectana magnaculata Lin & Li, 2022 – China
• Paraplectana mamoniae Basumatary & Brahma, 2019 – India, China
• Paraplectana multimaculata Thorell, 1899 – Cameroon, East Africa
• Paraplectana rajashree Ahmed, Sumukha, Khalap, Mohan & Jadhav, 2015 – India
• Paraplectana sakaguchii Uyemura, 1938 – China, Korea, Japan
• Paraplectana thorntoni (Blackwall, 1865) – Africa, Madagascar, Yemen (type species)
• Paraplectana tsushimensis Yamaguchi, 1960 – China, Taiwan, Japan
• Paraplectana walleri (Blackwall, 1865) – West, Central, Southern Africa, Madagascar

References

1. "Genus Paraplectana". World Spider Catalog. doi:10.24436/2 . Retrieved 26 September 2025.
2. Brito Capello, F. de (1867). "Descripçao de algunas especies novas ou pouco conhecidas de Crustaceo e Arachnidios de Portugal e possessoes portuguezas do Ultramar". Memorias da Academia Real das Sciencias de Lisboa. New Series. 4 (1): 1–17.
3. Dippenaar-Schoeman, A.S.; Haddad, C.R.; Foord, S.H.; Lotz, L.N.; Webb, P. (2022). The Araneidae of South Africa. Version 2: part 3 (Ne-U). South African National Survey of Arachnida Photo Identification Guide. pp. 24, 30. doi:10.5281/zenodo.6326991.  This article incorporates text available under the CC BY 4.0 license.