The genus Argiope includes rather large spiders that often have a strikingly coloured abdomen. These spiders are distributed throughout the world. Most countries in tropical or temperate climates host one or more species that are similar in appearance. The etymology of Argiope is from a Latin word argentum meaning silver. The carapace of Argiope species is typically covered in silvery hairs, and when crawling in the sun, they reflect it in a way that gives them a metallic, white appearance.
Bernard-Germain-Étienne de La Ville-sur-Illon, comte de Lacépède or La Cépède was a French naturalist and an active freemason. He is known for his contribution to the Comte de Buffon's great work, the Histoire Naturelle.
Jean Victor Audouin, sometimes Victor Audouin, was a French naturalist, an entomologist, herpetologist, ornithologist, and malacologist.
Henri Milne-Edwards was a French zoologist.
Marie Jules César Lelorgne de Savigny was a French zoologist and naturalist who served on Emperor Napoleon's Egypt expedition in 1798. He published descriptions of numerous taxa and was among the first to propose that the mouth-parts of insects are derived from the jointed legs of segmented arthropods.
Guillaume-Antoine Olivier was a French entomologist and naturalist.
Baron Charles Athanase Walckenaer was a French civil servant, writer, man of letters, and scientist. He was a polymath and wrote extensively on geography, natural history, and literature. Major contributions included his multi-volume natural histories of arachnids and insects, some published in collaboration with others. He was made a baron in 1823.
Pierre-Justin-Marie Macquart was a French entomologist specialising in the study of Diptera. He worked on world species as well as European and described many new species.
The Description de l'Égypte was a series of publications, appearing first in 1809 and continuing until the final volume appeared in 1829, which aimed to comprehensively catalog all known aspects of ancient and modern Egypt as well as its natural history. It is the collaborative work of about 160 civilian scholars and scientists, known popularly as the savants, who accompanied Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt in 1798 to 1801 as part of the French Revolutionary Wars, as well as about 2000 artists and technicians, including 400 engravers, who would later compile it into a full work. At the time of its publication, it was the largest known published work in the world.
Léon Jean MarieDufour was a French medical doctor and naturalist.
Hersilia, also known as long-spinnereted bark spiders and two-tailed spiders, is a genus of tree trunk spiders that was first described by Jean Victoire Audouin in 1826. Their nicknames are a reference to their greatly enlarged spinnerets.
Hasarius adansoni, known commonly as Adanson's house jumper, is a species of jumping spider that is common in warm regions around the world, often associated with people.
Tetragnatha is a genus of long-jawed orb-weavers found all over the world. It was first described by Pierre André Latreille in 1804, and it contains hundreds of species. Most occur in the tropics and subtropics, and many can run over water. They are commonly called stretch spiders in reference to their elongated body form and their ability to hide on blades of grass or similar elongated substrates by stretching their front legs forward and the others behind them. The name Tetragnatha is derived from Greek, tetra- a numerical prefix referring to four and gnatha meaning "jaw". Evolution to cursorial behavior occurred long ago in a few different species, the most studied being those found on the Hawaiian islands. One of the biggest and most common species is T. extensa, which has a holarctic distribution. It can be found near lakes, river banks or swamps. Large numbers of individuals can often be found in reeds, tall grass, and around minor trees and shrubs.
Tritoniopsis elegans is a species of dendronotid nudibranch. It is a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Tritoniidae and is found in the western Indo-Pacific. It was first described by the French naturalist Jean Victoire Audouin in 1826, the type specimen being found in the Red Sea.
Smaragdia viridis. common name the "emerald nerite" is a species of small, green sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Neritidae, the nerites.
Alvania dorbignyi is a species of minute sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk or micromollusk in the family Rissoidae.
Sukashitrochus dorbignyi is a species of minute sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk or micromollusk in the family Scissurellidae, the little slit snails.
Nephila antipodiana, also known as the batik golden web spider, is a species of golden orb-web spider discovered in 1841 by Charles Athanase Walckenaer. The species is found throughout Australia, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand. The spider's silk contains a pyrrolidine alkaloid which serves as a chemical repellent to keep ants away from the spider's web.
Jean-Gabriel Prêtre was a Swiss-French natural history painter who illustrated birds, mammals and reptiles in a large number of books. Several species of animal were named after him.
Menemerus soldani is a species of jumping spider in the genus Menemerus that lives in Algeria, Egypt and Tunisia. It was first described in 1826 by Jean Victor Audouin. He identified both the male and female but not in much detail and it was not until 1999 that a thorough description was completed. This led to confusion, with many museums holding examples of different species labelled Menemerus soldani. When the female was described by Hippolyte Lucas and Wanda Wesołowska, they were designated as different species, both of these being declared junior synonyms by subsequent arachnologists. The spider is small, with a total length between 3.11 and 5.65 mm, and has a brown carapace, yellow abdomen and orange legs. The spiders have characteristic copulatory organs. The female has a characteristic semi-circular notch at the rear of its epigyne while the male has a large bulbous patellar apophysis that other species in the genus lack. The male has a flat projection or apophysis on its pedipalp tibia. The spider lives in palm groves and Quercus suber forests.
