Biology:Clitaetra
Clitaetra is a genus of spiders in a family Nephilidae.[1] It occurs in Africa, Madagascar and Sri Lanka, hinting to a Gondwanan origin. a split between Clitaetra and related genera may be as old as 160 million years.[2]
Description
Females have a total length of 5.7–9.9 mm, while males are smaller at 2.8–3.6 mm. The female carapace and chelicerae are yellow-grey, with the sternum yellow and bearing irregular white patches along the middle and four pairs of sternal slit sensilla.[3]
The abdomen is pentagonal and dorsoventrally flattened, with five pairs of dorsomedian apodemes. The dorsum has a grey, brown and white pattern, while the venter has a broad white median stripe extending from the epigastric furrow to the spinnerets, with a broken white pattern around the spinnerets. The legs are whitish-yellow with dark brown spine-sockets and spines, and brown tarsi.
Males have a light brown sternum and both eye rows are recurved. The abdomen is oval with three pairs of dorsal apodemes and a dark brown scutum with a white frontal band. The venter is brown to dark grey, with three pairs of white dots around the spinnerets.[3]
Name
The etymology of the genus name is unknown.[2]
Taxonomy
The genus Clitaetra was transferred from Tetragnathidae to Nephilidae by Kuntner in 2006, and subsequently transferred from Nephilidae to Araneidae.[3]
Species
As of September 2025[update], this genus includes five species:[1]
- Clitaetra clathrata Simon, 1907 – West Africa
- Clitaetra episinoides Simon, 1889 – Comoros, Mayotte (type species)
- Clitaetra irenae Kuntner, 2006 – Malawi, South Africa
- Clitaetra perroti Simon, 1894 – Madagascar
- Clitaetra simoni Benoit, 1962 – DR Congo
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Genus Clitaetra". World Spider Catalog. doi:10.24436/2. https://wsc.nmbe.ch/genus/2042. Retrieved 26 September 2025.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Kuntner, M. 2006. Phylogenetic systematics of a Gondwanan nephilid spider lineage Clitaetrinae (Araneae, Nephilidae). Zoologica Scripta 35(1):19-62. PDF
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Dippenaar-Schoeman, A.S.; Haddad, C.R.; Foord, S.H.; Lotz, L.N.; Webb, P. (2022). The Araneidae of South Africa. Version 2: part 1 (A-C). South African National Survey of Arachnida Photo Identification Guide. pp. 56. doi:10.5281/zenodo.6326922.
This article incorporates text available under the CC BY 4.0 license.
External links
- {{Inaturalist taxon}} template missing ID and not present in Wikidata.
Wikidata ☰ Q2405026 entry
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