Wolf spiders are members of the family Lycosidae, so named for their robust and agile hunting skills and excellent eyesight. They live mostly in solitude, hunt alone, and usually 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.
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.
The spider species Tegenaria domestica, commonly known as the barn funnel weaver in North America and the domestic house spider in Europe, is a member of the funnel-web family Agelenidae.
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, pantropical 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.
Phidippus audax, the Bold jumper or Daring 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.
Hentzia is a genus of the spider family Salticidae subfamily Dendryphantinae. The genus is widespread in North America and northern South America but the center of biodiversity seems to be primarily in the Caribbean and surrounding areas, with the greatest species diversity occurring in Cuba, which has seven species. Some outlier species, such as Hentzia poenitens and Hentzia fimbriata are found in western North America. It appears to be closely related to the genus Anicius from which it differs primarily in certain anatomical details.
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.
Kaira, sometimes called frilled orbweavers, is a mostly neotropical genus of orb-weaver spiders first described by O. Pickard-Cambridge in 1889. It includes sixteen described species that occur from South America up to the southern and eastern USA. It is presumably related to Aculepeira, Amazonepeira and Metepeira.
Lyssomaninae is a subfamily of jumping spiders. It includes four genera, three from the New World.
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.
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.
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.
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 in individual nests amongst other spiders and preys on insects, relying on its good eyesight to hunt diurnally. 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.
Plexippus minor is a species of jumping spider in the genus Plexippus that lives in the United Arab Emirates. The male was first described by Wanda Wesołowska and Antonius van Harten in 2010 and the female in 2020. The spider is medium-sized with a cephalothorax between 3.1 and 3.8 mm long and an abdomen between 3.3 and 4.1 mm long. It has a shape and colouring typical of the genus. The male has a orange carapace while the female is brownish-fawn. The copulatory organs distinguish it from related species, particularly the male's shorter embolus and tibial apophysis and the female's wide pocket on its epigyne.
Trichonephila is a genus of golden 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 Nephilidae family.
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.
Stenaelurillus jocquei is a species of jumping spider in the genus Stenaelurillus that lives in Cameroon. It was first described in 2018 by Dmitri Logunov and Galina Azarkina. The spider is medium-sized, with a carapace between 2.6 and 2.7 mm long and abdomen between 12.4 and 3.5 mm long. The female is slightly larger than the male. The colouration differs between examples, which have been termed the light form and dark form. The carapace is brown and has two white stripes and the abdomen is brown with three white spots and three white stripes, the abdomen being darker in the dark form. The clypeus is yellowish brown in the light form and brown in the dark form. The male light form has iridenscent hairs on the clypeus and its brown eye field. The spinnerets of the female light form are yellow, the male brown and the dark form darker still. The species can be best distinguished from the similar Stenaelurillus hirsutus by its copulatory organs. The male has a ribbon-like spiralling embolus and the female has large round spermathecae.
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.
