Biology:Nilus margaritatus
| White-banded Nilus fish-eating spider | |
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Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae |
| Infraorder: | Araneomorphae |
| Family: | Pisauridae |
| Genus: | Nilus |
| Species: | N. margaritatus
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| Binomial name | |
| Nilus margaritatus (Pocock, 1898)[1]
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| Synonyms[2] | |
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Nilus margaritatus is a spider species in the family Pisauridae.[2] The species is commonly known as the white-banded Nilus fish-eating spider.[3]
Distribution
Nilus margaritatus has been recorded from Kenya, Tanzania, Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, and Eswatini.[3]
In South Africa, the species has been sampled from four provinces: Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, and Mpumalanga.[3]
Habitat and ecology
These are free-running ground dwellers associated with fresh waters and known to catch small fish, tadpoles, and large aquatic invertebrates including insect nymphs or larvae.[3] They can be found at fresh-water pools and have been sampled from the Grassland and Savanna biomes at altitudes ranging from 47 to 1247 m.[3]
Description
-
preying on caterpillar -
with egg sac -
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Conservation
Nilus margaritatus is listed as Least Concern due to its wide geographical range.[3] The species is protected in more than 10 protected areas.[3] There are no significant threats to the species.[3]
Taxonomy
The species was originally described by Pocock in 1898 as Thalassius margaritatus from Tanzania.[1] It was transferred to Nilus by Jäger in 2011.[4] The species was revised by Sierwald in 1987 and is known from both sexes.[5]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Pocock, R.I. (1898). "On the scorpions, spiders and solpugas collected by Mr. C. Steuart Betton in British East Africa". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 66 (3): 497-524. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1898.tb03172.x.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Nilus margaritatus (Pocock, 1898)". World Spider Catalog. Natural History Museum Bern. doi:10.24436/2. https://wsc.nmbe.ch/species/27436. Retrieved 2025-10-01.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 Dippenaar-Schoeman, A.S.; Haddad, C.R.; Foord, S.H.; Lotz, L.N. (2020). The Pisauridae of South Africa. Version 1. South African National Survey of Arachnida Photo Identification Guide. p. 43. doi:10.5281/zenodo.7157775.
This article incorporates text available under the CC BY 4.0 license.
- ↑ Jäger, P. (2011). "Revision of the spider genera Nilus O. Pickard-Cambridge 1876, Sphedanus Thorell 1877 and Dendrolycosa Doleschall 1859 (Araneae: Pisauridae)". Zootaxa 3046: 1-38. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3046.1.1.
- ↑ Sierwald, P. (1987). "Revision der Gattung Thalassius (Arachnida, Araneae, Pisauridae)". Verhandlungen des Naturwissenschaftlichen Vereins in Hamburg 29: 51-142.
Wikidata ☰ Q27504348 entry
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