Arachnura

Arachnura

Female A. melanura
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Suborder:	Araneomorphae
Family:	Araneidae
Genus:	Arachnura Vinson, 1863
Species
See text.
Diversity
13 species

Male A. logio

Arachnura is a genus of orb-weaving spiders of Australasia, with one species found in Africa and Madagascar. These spiders mimic litter, like twigs or dead leaves, by a brownish color and appendages. They stay at the middle of their web day and night. Among the common names are Tailed spider, Scorpion-tailed spider and Scorpion spider. They do curl up their tail when disturbed, but this tail is completely harmless, as they are not closely related to order scorpiones. Bites are rare, and result in minor symptoms such as local pain and swelling.

Females are between 1 and 3 cm long, males reach only 2 mm and are tailless.

A. logio is called Kijiro o-hiki-gumo in Japanese. A. feredayi is commonly called Tailed forest spider. A. higginsi is often found in large numbers near water in Australia.

Name

The genus name is derived from Greek arachne "spider" and ura "tail".

Species

Arachnura angura Tikader, 1970 — India
Arachnura caudatella Roewer, 1942 — New Guinea, Queensland
Arachnura feredayi (L. Koch, 1872) — Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand
Arachnura heptotubercula Yin, Hu & Wang, 1983 — China
Arachnura higginsi (L. Koch, 1872) — Australia, Tasmania
Arachnura logio Yaginuma, 1956 — China, Japan
Arachnura melanura Simon, 1867 — India to Japan and Sulawesi
Arachnura perfissa (Thorell, 1895) — Myanmar
Arachnura pygmaea (Thorell, 1890) — Nias Islands
Arachnura quinqueapicata Strand, 1911 — Aru Islands
Arachnura scorpionoides Vinson, 1863 — Congo, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mauritius
Arachnura simoni Berland, 1924 — New Caledonia
Arachnura spinosa (Saito, 1933) — Taiwan

References

Vinson, A. (1863). Aranéides des îles de la Réunion, Maurice et Madagascar. Paris, i-cxx, 1-337.
Museum Victoria: Scorpion Tailed Spider
Platnick, Norman I. (2008): The world spider catalog, version 8.5. American Museum of Natural History.

External links

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