Southern house spider

Last updated

Southern house spider
Kukulcaniahibernalis.JPG
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Infraorder: Araneomorphae
Family: Filistatidae
Genus: Kukulcania
Species:
K. hibernalis
Binomial name
Kukulcania hibernalis
(Hentz, 1842) [1]
Synonyms

Filistata hibernalis
Filistata capitata
Teratodes depressus
Filistata cubaecola
Filistata distincta
Filistata depressa
Mygale muritelaria
Filistata tractans
Filistata capito

Contents

The southern house spider is a species of large spider in the family Filistatidae. Currently given the scientific name Kukulcania hibernalis, it was formerly known as Filistata hibernalis. Found in the Americas, it exhibits strong sexual dimorphism. It is occurs in the southern states of the USA, throughout Central America and some of the Caribbean, to southern Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. [2] The males may be mistaken for brown recluses because the two have similar coloration and body structure. However, compared to the brown recluse, male southern house spiders are typically larger in size, lack the distinctive violin shape on their cephalothorax, and have unusually long slender pedipalps. The females are dark brown or black and more compact. Both sexes may grow to be roughly 2 inches (5.1 cm) across (legs extended), with the males typically having longer legs, and the females often having larger, bulbous bodies. The abdomen of the southern house spider is covered with fine velvety light gray hair. [3]

Female southern house spiders are rarely seen, as they build radial webs around crevices, for which reason their family (Filistatidae) is called crevice weavers. Females seldom move except to capture prey caught in their webs. Males, on the other hand, typically wander in search of insects and females to mate with, having no particular territory.

The southern house spider is a cribellate spider. That is, its spinnerets do not produce adhesive webbing. Instead, to capture prey the spider uses its legs to comb webbing across its cribellum, a spiked plate near the spinnerets. This combing action frays and tangles the strands, producing a fine, velcro-like netting that ensnares insect legs. [4]

Male southern house spiders sometimes appear aggressive, but they do not bite unless trapped, and their mouthparts are too small to easily penetrate human skin. They do, however, have an unnerving tendency to crawl across anything in their path regardless of whether it is alive. This is not aggression; these spiders are simply nearly blind and cannot see larger animals. Indeed, these spiders instinctively play dead if they feel threatened (a tactic which is effective against their common predators).

Southern house spiders are capable of crawling through crevices as narrow as 1/4 in (0.66 cm) due to their elongated bodies and compact legs.

Reproduction

The southern house spider mating ritual is a lengthy (over an hour) and elaborate process with long periods during which neither the male nor the female moves considerably. When the wandering male encounters a female's web, there may be an initial confrontation where each scares the other. Upon recovering, the male then constructs a large web around the female's crevice. When this web is complete, the male pulls on its strands continuously to draw the female out of her hole, which may take several minutes. Following her emergence, each spider will tap at the other in an effort to grasp the other by the forelegs, with the male remaining suspended in his web. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crevice weaver</span> Family of spiders

Crevice weaver spiders (Filistatidae) comprise cribellate spiders with features that have been regarded as "primitive" for araneomorph spiders. They are weavers of funnel or tube webs. The family contains 18 genera and more than 120 described species worldwide.

<i>Heteropoda venatoria</i> Species of spider

Heteropoda venatoria is a species of spider in the family Sparassidae, the huntsman spiders. It is native to the tropical regions of the world, and it is present in some subtropical areas as an introduced species. Its common names include giant crab spider, banana huntsman spider or cane spider.

Misionella is a genus of South American crevice weavers that was first described by M. J. Ramírez & C. J. Grismado in 1997. In 2005 a spider fossil found in 15- to 20-million-year-old Miocene amber from the Dominican Republic was described as Misionella didicostae. A second specimen was discussed soon thereafter.

<i>Phidippus audax</i> Species of arachnid (type of jumping spider)

Phidippus audax, the bold jumper or bold jumping spider, is a common species of spider belonging to the genus Phidippus, a group of jumping spiders easily identified by their large eyes and their iridescent chelicerae. Like all jumping spiders, they have excellent stereoscopic vision that aids them in stalking prey and facilitates visual communication with potential mates during courting. Bold jumping spiders are native to North America and have been introduced to Hawaii, Nicobar Islands, Azores, and the Netherlands. They are typically black with a distinct white triangle on their abdomen.

<i>Peucetia viridans</i> Species of spider

Peucetia viridans, the green lynx spider, is a bright-green lynx spider usually found on green plants. It is the largest North American species in the family Oxyopidae. This spider is common in the southern U.S., Mexico, Central America, and in many West Indies islands, especially Jamaica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spider anatomy</span> Physiology of Spiders (order Araneae)

The anatomy of spiders includes many characteristics shared with other arachnids. These characteristics include bodies divided into two tagmata, eight jointed legs, no wings or antennae, the presence of chelicerae and pedipalps, simple eyes, and an exoskeleton, which is periodically shed.

<i>Saitis barbipes</i> Species of spider

Saitis barbipes is a common jumping spider found in the Mediterranean region.

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

Lyssomaninae is a subfamily of jumping spiders. It includes four genera, three from the New World.

<i>Kukulcania arizonica</i> Species of spider

Kukulcania arizonica, commonly called the Arizona black hole spider is a species of spider belonging to the family Filistatidae. As the scientific and common names suggest, this spider is found in Arizona, and the neighbouring US states of New Mexico, Nevada and California.

<i>Zygoballus sexpunctatus</i> Species of spider

Zygoballus sexpunctatus is a species of jumping spider which occurs in the southeastern United States where it can be found in a variety of grassy habitats. Adult spiders measure between 3 and 4.5 mm in length. The cephalothorax and abdomen are bronze to black in color, with reddish brown or yellowish legs. The male has distinctive enlarged chelicerae and front femora. Like many jumping spiders, Z. sexpunctatus males exhibit ritualized courtship and agonistic behavior.

<i>Dolomedes tenebrosus</i> Species of spider

Dolomedes tenebrosus or dark fishing spider is a fishing spider found in the United States and Canada.

<i>Oxyopes salticus</i> Species of spider

Oxyopes salticus is a species of lynx spider, commonly known as the striped lynx spider, first described by Hentz in 1845. Its habitat tends to be grasses and leafy vegetation; grassy, weedy fields, and row crops.

<i>Oxytate</i> Genus of spiders

The genus Oxytate, commonly known as grass crab spiders, comprises a homogenous group of nocturnal crab spiders. The complete mitochondrial genome of the type species O. striatipes was determined in 2014.

<i>Tetragnatha montana</i> Species of spider

Tetragnatha montana, commonly known as the silver stretch spider, is a species of long-jawed orb weaver from the family Tetragnathidae that has a Palearctic distribution. It preys mostly on flies and mosquitoes. The name silver stretch spider refers to its shiny metallic colour and its habit of extending its legs into a stick like shape.

<i>Icius mbitaensis</i> Species of spider

Icius mbitaensis is a species of jumping spider in the genus Icius that lives in Kenya. It was first described in 2011 by Wanda Wesołowska. The spider lives communally amongst other spiders and preys on insects. It is small, with a cephalothorax between 2.0 and 2.2 mm long and an abdomen 2.2 and 2.7 mm long. The female and male are similar in size and colouration of the carapace. The male abdomen is grey-brown with a faint pattern visible on some specimens. The female has a brown abdomen, sometimes more reddish-brown to the front, with some examples having a patch in the middle and spots to the back. The species is similar to other Icius spiders but differs in the size of the embolus and tibial apophysis of the male and the epigynal depression and pockets, seminal ducts and spermathecae of the female.

<i>Stenaelurillus fuscatus</i> Species of spider

Stenaelurillus fuscatus is a species of jumping spider in the genus Stenaelurillus that lives in Kenya and Tanzania. The species was first identified in 2000 by Wanda Wesołowska & Anthony Russell-Smith, and named for the Latin word for darkish. The spider is medium-sized with a carapace between 2.5 and 3.2 mm long and an abdomen that is between 2.8 and 3.6 in in length. The female carapace is dark brown and has two white stripes and a pattern of a triangle and spots on the abdomen. The colouration is similarly dark but the patterns are less clear. The male abdomen is dominated by a dark scutum. The female is also darker overall, with brown rather than the yellow spinnerets and light brown chelicerae of the male. The male has a hook near the base of the embolus that differentiates it from other species in the genus, while the female's wide insemination ducts sets it apart from the similar Stenaelurillus darwini.

<i>Trichonephila</i> Genus of spiders

Trichonephila is a genus of orb-weaver spiders that was first described by Friedrich Dahl in 1911, as a subgenus of Nephila. Trichonephila was elevated to the level of genus by Kuntner et al. in 2019. The genus Trichonephila belongs to the Araneidae family, also known as the orb weavers. The family Araneidae belongs within the superfamily of Araneoidea, comprising 18 families. Araneidae family members can be identified by looking for three-clawed spiders that have eight eyes spanned across two sets which form a trapezoid shape, on webs with a sticky glue like feeling. The very diverse Araneidae family is most famously known for their elaborate webs they spin, which are webs made of concentric circles with spokes extending out from the center. In few species of the spiders, you can find a zigzag shape going down the center of the web. Identifying the species of these spiders is not easy with the eye alone, it breaks down into phylogenomic variations between their species best observed under a microscope. The genus Trichonephila, like all other spider species in the world, are all predators. Not a single spider exists that is solely a herbivore or a detrivore.

Entypesa andohahela is a species of spider in the family Entypesidae, endemic to Madagascar. It was first described by Sergei Zonstein in 2018. The specific name andohahela refers to the locality in which the first described specimen was found, Andohahela National Park in south-eastern Madagascar.

Notolinga is a monotypic genus of South American sheet weavers containing the single species, Notolinga fuegiana. It is a replacement name for Linga, already in use by a genus of molluscs. Eugène Simon described the first female in 1902 under the name "Neriene fuegiana", but the first male was not described until 2019. It has only been found in Argentina and on the Falkland Islands.

Yuri Mikhailovitch Marusik is a Russian arachnologist.

References

  1. "Taxon details Kukulcania hibernalis (Hentz, 1842)". World Spider Catalog. Natural History Museum Bern. Retrieved 2017-05-10.
  2. Brescovit, Antonio D.; Santos, Adalberto J. (2013-11-06). "The spider genus Kukulcania in South America (Araneae: Filistatidae): a redescription of K. brevipes (Keyserling) and new records of K. hibernalis (Hentz)". Zootaxa. 3734 (3): 301–316. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3734.3.1. ISSN   1175-5334.
  3. Edwards, GB; McCanless, K. "Southern House Spider, Kukulcania hibernalis (Hentz) (Arachnida: Araneae: Filistatidae)1". University of Florida IFAS Extension. University of Florida.
  4. Edwards, GB; McCanless, K. "Southern House Spider, Kukulcania hibernalis (Hentz) (Arachnida: Araneae: Filistatidae)1". University of Florida IFAS Extension. University of Florida.
  5. Barrantes, Gilbert (2013-01-06). "Courtship, Egg Sac Construction, and Maternal Care in Kukulcania hibernalis, with Information on the Courtship of Misionella mendensis (Araneae, Filistatidae)". Arachnology. 16 (2): 72-80. doi:10.13156/arac.2013.16.2.72. hdl: 11336/9323 .

[1] [2]

  1. Barrantes, Gilbert (2013-01-06). "Courtship, Egg Sac Construction, and Maternal Care in Kukulcania hibernalis, with Information on the Courtship of Misionella mendensis (Araneae, Filistatidae)". Arachnology. 16 (2): 72-80. doi:10.13156/arac.2013.16.2.72. hdl: 11336/9323 .
  2. Edwards, GB; McCanless, K. "Southern House Spider, Kukulcania hibernalis (Hentz) (Arachnida: Araneae: Filistatidae)1". University of Florida IFAS Extension. University of Florida.