User:Macthethird/Arachnura

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Arachnura commonly called the Scorpion spider, Tailed spider or the Drag-tailed spider, is a genus of orb-weaver spiders belonging to the family Araneidae and commonly located among Southern Australia and Eastern Asia, first described by A. Vinson in 1863.[1][2][3]

Macthethird/Arachnura
A. Scorpionoides, female
A. logio, male
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Infraorder: Araneomorphae
Family: Araneidae
Genus: Arachnura
[4]

Description[edit]

Females grow to a length of 1 to 3 centimeters long with males only reaching 2 millimeters in size.[5] The coloring of female body's carapace is a pale brown with a brown medial line behind the posterior median eye. The thoracic region is marked with brown bands along the cervical groove with the remaining majority of the spider covered in dark shades of brown and black.[6][7] Males possess a brown carapace with an inner pale yellow margin and a brownish yellow sternum with brown patching. The remainder is covered in dark browns with small brown spots located throughout the males abdomen.[5] Juveniles have similar markings but their bodies are covered in lighter shades and colors until they mature and reach adulthood. The abdomen is elongated with two anterior lobes tapered to a long tail with a club like formation on the tip. Females possess this prominent tail that is comparable to a Scorpion's tail. Although they are not related, the female will also curl up their tail when threatened or disturbed, but are no threat to humans.[8][9] The male does not possess this tail and is roughly 4.5 times smaller than the female in size. The reason for this dramatic size difference is still unknown by scientists.[10][11]

Habitat[edit]

Arachnura build their web near ground level or on angled surfaces among lower branches of trees. The web is constructed as a sloping horizontal orb web with a missing segment. The female remains centered on their web motionless throughout day and night, her legs tucked in as to mimic plant debris (plant litter) in an attempt to disguise herself as dead leaves or fallen twigs.[12] These webs are often built behind shrubs and bush lands with the target being small flying insects such as gnats and flies as the usual prey. Distribution among the Arachnura is clumped, with many spiders found in the same area coexisting together.[5]

Behavior[edit]

The female lays up to eight egg sacks that are oval in shape, roughly 5 mm x 4 mm of strong silk and hold 50 to 60 0.8 mm size eggs in each egg sack. Sacks are stored among missing sections of the web where prey is not caught.[6] The female often hides the eggs throughout these missing sections constructing a row of elongated eggs sacks. She covers them in plant debris in an effort to camouflage egg sacks and other parts of her web.[13][7] The female Arachnura removes and replaces the spiral of the web designed for catching prey daily, but reuses the frame and its radial components for several days.[14] These spiders often build their webs in dense areas populated with other Arachnuras in colony like style with studies often showing over 70 webs in contact.[15] Although bites from both male and female will rarely occur, bites are comparable to the effects of a Mosquito. These include symptoms such as minimal swelling along with itchiness and local pain often taking a day or two to naturally settle.[5]

Species[edit]

There are 12 species of Arachnura with the last discovered in 1983.[16][17]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Vinson, Auguste (1863). Aranéides des îles de la Réunion, Maurice et Madagascar. Lausanne Musée cantonal de zoologie. Paris : Roret.
  2. ^ "An Updated Review on the Spiders of Order Araneae from the Districts of Western Ghats of India". BBRC. 2019-12-27. Retrieved 2020-04-05.
  3. ^ "Arachnura melanura - Spider Identification & Pictures". spiderid.com. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference NMBE was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b c d Tanikawa, Akio. (1991). New Record of Arachnura melanura SIMON, 1867(Araneae:Araneidae), from Japan, with the First Description of the Male. Acta Arachnologica. 40. 11-15. 10.2476/asjaa.40.11.
  6. ^ a b Australia, Atlas of Living. "Species: Arachnura higginsi". bie.ala.org.au. Retrieved 2020-04-02.
  7. ^ a b Sebastian, P. A.; Peter, K. V. (2009). Spiders of India. Universities Press. ISBN 978-81-7371-641-6.
  8. ^ "Scorpion-tailed Spiders". The Bug Chicks. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
  9. ^ "A NEW SPECIES OF GENUS ARACHNURA (ARANEAE, ARANEIDAE) FROM CHINA--《Journal of Natural Science of Hunan Normal University》1983年S2期". en.cnki.com.cn. Retrieved 2020-04-05.
  10. ^ Quiñones-Lebrón, Shakira G.; Gregorič, Matjaž; Kuntner, Matjaž; Kralj-Fišer, Simona (2019-05-15). "Small size does not confer male agility advantages in a sexually-size dimorphic spider". PLOS ONE. 14 (5): e0216036. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0216036. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 6519806. PMID 31091246.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: PMC format (link) CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
  11. ^ W. Levi, Herbert. "The Orb-Weaver Genus Witica" (PDF). Museum of Comparative Zoology. 93: 13.
  12. ^ Mammola, Stefano; Michalik, Peter; Hebets, Eileen A.; Isaia, Marco (2017-10-31). "Record breaking achievements by spiders and the scientists who study them". PeerJ. 5. doi:10.7717/peerj.3972. ISSN 2167-8359. PMC 5668680. PMID 29104823.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
  13. ^ Unknown. "Scorpion-tailed Spider, Arachnura higginsi". Retrieved 2020-04-04.
  14. ^ Opell, Brent D.; Schwend, Harold S. (2008). "Persistent stickiness of viscous capture threads produced by araneoid orb-weaving spiders". Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A: Ecological Genetics and Physiology. 309A (1): 11–16. doi:10.1002/jez.426. ISSN 1932-5231.
  15. ^ Kaston, B. J. (1965). "Some Little Known Aspects of Spider Behavior". The American Midland Naturalist. 73 (2): 336–356. doi:10.2307/2423458. ISSN 0003-0031.
  16. ^ "NMBE - World Spider Catalog". wsc.nmbe.ch. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
  17. ^ Emerson, Casquet, López, Cardoso, Borges, Mollaret, Oromí, Strasberg, Thébaud, Emerson, Juliane, Heriberto, Pedro, Paulo, Noémy, Pedro, Dominique, Christopher. "A combined field survey and molecular identification protocol for comparing forest arthropod biodiversity across spatial scales" (PDF). Resource Article: 30. {{cite journal}}: line feed character in |title= at position 76 (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)


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