Pandercetes

Pandercetes
Pandercetes celatus from the Western Ghats showing typical cryptic patterning
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Suborder: Araneomorphae
Family: Sparassidae
Genus: Pandercetes
L. Koch, 1875
Species

see text

Pandercetes is a genus of spiders in the family Sparassidae, the huntsman spiders. They are mainly distributed in tropical Asia and Australia, and are known for their cryptic patterning that matches the moss and lichen on tree trunks where they are usually found.

Showing moss-like appearance and the head elevated above the plane of the cephalothorax

Their legs have lateral hairs giving them a feathery appearance and break their outline. The head is somewhat elevated and the carapace has the thoracic region low and flat.[1] The genus is characterized by the internal anatomy of the reproductive structures. Males have irregular coils at the terminal end while females have screw like copulatory ducts.[2]

The genus was erected by Carl "Spider" Koch in his 1875 treatise on Australian spiders.[3]

Species

Species in the genus are found mostly in tropical forests in Asia and extending east to Australia.

References

  1. ↑ Pocock, R.I. (1909). The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Arachnida. London: Taylor and Francis. pp. 259–265.
  2. ↑ Jäger, Peter (2002). "Heteropodinae: Transfers and Synonymies (Arachnida: Araneae : Sparassidae)" (PDF). Acta Arachnologica 51 (1): 33–61.
  3. ↑ Koch, L. (1875). Die Arachniden Australiens. Volume 1 (PDF) (in German). pp. 577–740.
  4. ↑ Pocock, R. I. (1899). "Diagnoses of some new Indian Arachnida". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 12: 744–753.

External links

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