Selenops

Selenops
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Infraorder:	Araneomorphae
Family:	Selenopidae
Genus:	Selenops Latreille, 1890
Diversity
115 species

Selenops is a spider genus that is found in many deserts of the world. It is very hard to distinguish the 115 species.

S. australiensis is found on or under dry bark in Australia. The female reaches 9mm, the male 7mm. It looks superficially like a huntsman spider.

S. radiatus has proved to be an effective controlling agent of the potato tuber moth in South Africa.

Selenops is the first spider known to be able to steer and glide when falling to land a tree instead of falling to the ground.^[1][2]

Name

Named after the moon goddess Selene, and Greek -ops "eye", because of the moon-like form of the eyes.

Selected species

• Selenops australiensis
• Selenops aztecus Valdez-Mondragon, 2010
• Selenops galapagoensis
• Selenops muehlmannorum Jager & Praxaysombath, 2011^[3]
• Selenops nesophilus
• Selenops radiatus

References

1. "Flying Spiders Found—and They Can Steer in Mid-Air".
2. "Arachnid aloft: directed aerial descent in neotropical canopy spiders".
3. Jager, P. & Praxaysombath, B. (2011). "Selenops muehlmannorum spec. nov. from Southern Laos (Araneae: Selenopidae)." Zootaxa 2883: 65-68.

External links

• Picture of Selenops sp.
• Picture of S. australiensis