Parasteatoda

Parasteatoda
female P. ryukyu
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Family:	Theridiidae
Genus:	Parasteatoda Archer, 1946
Type species
Theridion tepidariorum C. L. Koch, 1841
Species
see text
Diversity
c. 40 species

female P. tepidariorum

Parasteatoda is a genus of spiders in the Theridiidae (tangle web spider) family.

Description

Most species are mainly grayish brown to blackish brown, but some are bright orange.^[1]

Distribution

This is mostly an Old World genus, with many species found in Asia and New Guinea, but reaching into Europe. A single species, P. tepidariorum is found in the New World, but P. tepidariorum australis can also be found in New Guinea, Myanmar and Pakistan.

Taxonomy

Many species in this genus were moved from Achaearanea during a major revision in 2008.^[2]

Name

The genus name is combined from Ancient Greek para "beside, near" and the theridiid genus Steatoda. The Japanese name for this genus is O-himogumo zoku ("thread silk spider family").^[1]

Species

female P. japonica

male P. japonica

female P. lunata

• Parasteatoda angulithorax (Bösenberg & Strand, 1906) — Russia, China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan
• Parasteatoda asiatica (Bösenberg & Strand, 1906) — China, Korea, Japan
• Parasteatoda brookesiana (Barrion & Litsinger, 1995) — India, Philippines
• Parasteatoda campanulata (Chen, 1993) — China
• Parasteatoda camura (Simon, 1877) — Philippines, New Guinea, Solomon Islands
• Parasteatoda celsadomina (Zhu, 1998) — China
• Parasteatoda cingulata (Zhu, 1998) — China
• Parasteatoda culicivora (Bösenberg & Strand, 1906) — China, Japan
• Parasteatoda daliensis (Zhu, 1998) — China
• Parasteatoda decorata (L. Koch, 1867) — Krakatau, New Guinea, Queensland
• Parasteatoda ducta (Zhu, 1998) — China
• Parasteatoda ferrumequina (Bösenberg & Strand, 1906) — China, Korea, Japan
• Parasteatoda galeiforma (Zhu, Zhang & Xu, 1991) — China
• Parasteatoda gui (Zhu, 1998) — China
• Parasteatoda hammeni (Chrysanthus, 1963) — New Guinea
• Parasteatoda japonica (Bösenberg & Strand, 1906) — China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan
• Parasteatoda jinghongensis (Zhu, 1998) — China
• Parasteatoda kaindi (Levi, Lubin & Robinson, 1982) — New Guinea
• Parasteatoda kompirensis (Bösenberg & Strand, 1906) — China, Korea, Japan
• Parasteatoda lanyuensis (Yoshida, Tso & Severinghaus, 2000) — Taiwan
• Parasteatoda longiducta (Zhu, 1998) — China
• Parasteatoda lunata (Clerck, 1757) — Palearctic
  • Parasteatoda lunata serrata (Franganillo, 1930) — Cuba
• Parasteatoda mundula (L. Koch, 1872) — India to New Caledonia
  • Parasteatoda mundula papuana (Chrysanthus, 1963) — New Guinea
• Parasteatoda oculiprominens (Saito, 1939) — China, Korea, Japan
• Parasteatoda oxymaculata (Zhu, 1998) — China
• Parasteatoda polygramma (Kulczynski, 1911) — New Guinea
• Parasteatoda quadrimaculata (Yoshida, Tso & Severinghaus, 2000) — Taiwan
• Parasteatoda ryukyu (Yoshida, 2000) — Japan, Ryukyu Islands
• Parasteatoda simulans (Thorell, 1875) — Palearctic
• Parasteatoda songi (Zhu, 1998) — China
• Parasteatoda subtabulata (Zhu, 1998) — China
• Parasteatoda subvexa (Zhu, 1998) — China
• Parasteatoda tabulata (Levi, 1980) — Holarctic
• Parasteatoda tepidariorum (C. L. Koch, 1841) — Americas
  • Parasteatoda tepidariorum australis (Thorell, 1895) — New Guinea, Myanmar, Pakistan
• Parasteatoda tesselata (Keyserling, 1884) — Mexico to Paraguay, New Guinea, Pakistan
• Parasteatoda transipora (Zhu & Zhang, 1992) — China
• Parasteatoda triangula (Yoshida, 1993) — Singapore, Java, Bali
• Parasteatoda valoka (Chrysanthus, 1975) — New Guinea, New Britain
• Parasteatoda vervoorti (Chrysanthus, 1975) — New Guinea
• Parasteatoda wau (Levi, Lubin & Robinson, 1982) — New Guinea

Notes

1. Yoshida 2008
2. Platnick 2009

References

• Yoshida, Hajime (2008): A revision of the genus Achaearanea (Araneae: Theridiidae). Acta Arachnologica 57(1): 37-40. doi:10.2476/asjaa.57.37
• Platnick, Norman I. (2009): The world spider catalog, version 9.5. American Museum of Natural History.