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Harpactea

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Harpactea
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Arachnida
Order:
Araneae
Suborder:
Araneomorphae
Family:
Dysderidae
Subfamily:
Harpacteinae
Genus:
Harpactea

Bristowe, 1939
Type species
Aranea hombergii
Scopoli, 1763
Species

H. corticalis
H. hombergi
H. lepida
H. major
H. rubicunda
H. sadistica
H. saeva
 many more

Diversity
c. 150 species

Harpactea is a genus of spiders from the family Dysderidae, with more than 150 described species.

Harpactea species are non-web building predators that forage on the ground and on tree trunks at night, mainly in xerothermic forests. At day, they hide in silk retreats they build under rocks or bark.[1]

Description

Like all species in the family Dysderidae, Harpactea has six eyes. The type species, H. hombergi, is very similar in both sexes and reaches a body length of about 6 mm. The female has no epigyne.[2]

Habits

As opposed to the related genus Dysdera, where at least some species specialize on hunting woodlice, most Harpactea feed on insects. At least H. rubicunda also hunts other spiders, for example Drassodes. Like most Dysderidae, all members of this genus are nocturnal.[3]

H. sadistica, first described in 2008, was found to directly insert its sperm into the body cavity of females, using specialized organs acting like a hypodermic needle. This behavior, known as traumatic insemination, is known from other arthropods, but has never been observed in spiders.[4]

Distribution

The distribution of the genus ranges from Europe and Northern Africa to Turkmenistan and Iran.[5] Almost all species appear to be endemic to small regions of the Mediterranean.[1]

However, H. hombergi is rather widespread, reaching from the United Kingdom to the Ukraine.[5] It is the only member of its genus that occurs in Britain.[2]

Notes

  1. ^ a b Rezác 2008
  2. ^ a b The Spiders of Britain, p. 62
  3. ^ http://wiki.spinnen-forum.de/index.php?title=Harpactea_rubicunda
  4. ^ Rezac 2009
  5. ^ a b Platnick 2009

References

  • Roberts, Michael J. (1985): The Spiders of Great Britain and Ireland. ISBN 90-04-07658-1
  • Řezáč, Milan (2008) Description of Harpactea sadistica n. sp. (Araneae: Dysderidae) — a haplogyne spider with reduced female genitalia. Zootaxa 1698: 65-68. Abstract
  • Řezáč, Milan (2009): The spider Harpactea sadistica: co-evolution of traumatic insemination and complex female genital morphology in spiders. Proc Biol Sci. — doi:10.1098/rspb.2009.0104 PMID 19403531
  • Norman I. Platnick (2009). "The world spider catalog, version 9.5". American Museum of Natural History.
  • BBC News (April 30, 2009): Spider sex violent but effective

Further reading

  • Chatzaki, Maria & Arnedo, Miquel A. (2006): Taxonomic revision of the epigean representatives of the spider subfamily Harpacteinae (Araneae: Dysderidae) on the island of Crete. Zootaxa 1169: 1-32. Abstract
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