Tamopsis

Tamopsis
Tamopsis brisbanensis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Infraorder:	Araneomorphae
Family:	Hersiliidae
Genus:	Tamopsis Baehr & Baehr, 1987[1]

Tamopsis is a genus of spiders in the family Hersiliidae, found in Australia and New Guinea. Like other members of the family, they may be called two-tailed spiders, referring to two elongated spinnerets.^[2]

Description

Tamopsis species are small to medium-sized spiders. For example, a female of the type species Tamopsis eucalypti has a body about 7 mm long, a male a body about 5 mm long. They resemble other members of the family Hersiliidae in having unusually long posterior lateral spinnerets (the outside rear pair), which in some species can be longer than the abdomen. They live in trees rather than on the ground and do not make complex webs. Their legs are relatively long, with an undivided metatarsus. The chelicerae have three teeth at the front edge. The male palpal bulb has a complex median apophysis (projection), sometimes coiled and usually with a hook-shaped structure at the end. The embolus of the palpal bulb can slide out of a lateral apophysis, which otherwise partly or completely hides it. The female has one to three seminal receptacles on each side.^[3]

Taxonomy

In 1987, Barbara Baehr and Martin Baehr reviewed the Australian members of the family Hersiliidae. They erected a new genus Tamopsis, and described 25 new species within the genus. Two species formerly placed in the genus Tama were transferred to Tamopsis.^[3] In a further series of papers from 1988 to 1998, more species were described.^{[4][5][6][7][8][9]} Another species was described by Rheims and Brescovit in 2004. Of the total of 50 accepted species as of April 2016, two were described before Baehr and Baehr, 47 by them, and 1 subsequently.^[1] Two remaining Australian species included in Tama, T. novaehollandiae and T. brachyura, are regarded as doubtful: the type specimens are either juveniles or have been lost, and the species are not identifiable from their initial descriptions.^[3]

The name Tamopsis means "like Tama"; -opsis, from the Greek ὄψις, here means "resembling".^[10] Tamopsis differs from Tama in the more complex structure of the male palpal bulb, and in particular its median apophysis, which may be coiled or have a hook- or spoon-shaped structure at the tip. Species included in Tama in 1987 also differ in being terrestrial, whereas the Australian species are generally arboreal.^[3]

Species

As of April 2016, the World Spider Catalog accepted the following species:^[1]

• Tamopsis amplithorax Baehr & Baehr, 1987 – Western Australia
• Tamopsis arnhemensis Baehr & Baehr, 1987 – Northern Territory, Queensland
• Tamopsis brachycauda Baehr & Baehr, 1987 – Queensland, New South Wales
• Tamopsis brevipes Baehr & Baehr, 1987 – New South Wales
• Tamopsis brisbanensis Baehr & Baehr, 1987 – Queensland, New South Wales
• Tamopsis centralis Baehr & Baehr, 1987 – Queensland
• Tamopsis circumvidens Baehr & Baehr, 1987 – Western Australia, Victoria
• Tamopsis cooloolensis Baehr & Baehr, 1987 – Queensland
• Tamopsis darlingtoniana Baehr & Baehr, 1987 – Western Australia
• Tamopsis daviesae Baehr & Baehr, 1987 – Queensland
• Tamopsis depressa Baehr & Baehr, 1992 – Western Australia, Northern Territory
• Tamopsis ediacarae Baehr & Baehr, 1988 – South Australia
• Tamopsis eucalypti (Rainbow, 1900) (type species) – Queensland to South Australia
• Tamopsis facialis Baehr & Baehr, 1993 – Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales
• Tamopsis fickerti (L. Koch, 1876) – Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria
• Tamopsis fitzroyensis Baehr & Baehr, 1987 – Western Australia, Queensland
• Tamopsis floreni Rheims & Brescovit, 2004 – Borneo
• Tamopsis forrestae Baehr & Baehr, 1988 – Queensland
• Tamopsis gibbosa Baehr & Baehr, 1993 – Western Australia, South Australia
• Tamopsis gracilis Baehr & Baehr, 1993 – Western Australia
• Tamopsis grayi Baehr & Baehr, 1987 – New South Wales
• Tamopsis harveyi Baehr & Baehr, 1993 – Northern Territory
• Tamopsis hirsti Baehr & Baehr, 1998 – South Australia
• Tamopsis jongi Baehr & Baehr, 1995 – Western Australia
• Tamopsis kimberleyana Baehr & Baehr, 1998 – Western Australia
• Tamopsis kochi Baehr & Baehr, 1987 – Western Australia, New South Wales
• Tamopsis leichhardtiana Baehr & Baehr, 1987 – Western Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland
• Tamopsis longbottomi Baehr & Baehr, 1993 – Northern Territory
• Tamopsis mainae Baehr & Baehr, 1993 – Western Australia
• Tamopsis mallee Baehr & Baehr, 1989 – Western, South Australia, New South Wales
• Tamopsis minor Baehr & Baehr, 1998 – Western Australia
• Tamopsis nanutarrae Baehr & Baehr, 1989 – Western Australia
• Tamopsis occidentalis Baehr & Baehr, 1987 – Western Australia
• Tamopsis perthensis Baehr & Baehr, 1987 – Western Australia
• Tamopsis petricola Baehr & Baehr, 1995 – Queensland
• Tamopsis piankai Baehr & Baehr, 1993 – Western Australia
• Tamopsis platycephala Baehr & Baehr, 1987 – Queensland
• Tamopsis pseudocircumvidens Baehr & Baehr, 1987 – Western Australia, South Australia, Northern Territory
• Tamopsis queenslandica Baehr & Baehr, 1987 – Queensland, New South Wales
• Tamopsis raveni Baehr & Baehr, 1987 – Queensland, South Australia
• Tamopsis reevesbyana Baehr & Baehr, 1987 – Western Australia, South Australia
• Tamopsis riverinae Baehr & Baehr, 1993 – New South Wales
• Tamopsis rossi Baehr & Baehr, 1987 – Western Australia
• Tamopsis transiens Baehr & Baehr, 1992 – Western Australia, Northern Territory, Victoria
• Tamopsis trionix Baehr & Baehr, 1987 – Queensland
• Tamopsis tropica Baehr & Baehr, 1987 – Northern Territory, Queensland
• Tamopsis tweedensis Baehr & Baehr, 1987 – Queensland, New South Wales
• Tamopsis warialdae Baehr & Baehr, 1998 – New South Wales
• Tamopsis wau Baehr & Baehr, 1993 – New Guinea
• Tamopsis weiri Baehr & Baehr, 1995 – Western Australia

References

1. "Gen. Tamopsis Baehr, 1987", World Spider Catalog (Natural History Museum Bern), retrieved 2016-04-17
2. Whyte, Robert & Anderson, Greg, "Hersiliidae Two-tailed spiders", Arachne.org.au, retrieved 2016-04-17
3. Baehr & Baehr (1987)
4. Baehr & Baehr (1988)
5. Baehr & Baehr (1989)
6. Baehr & Baehr (1992)
7. Baehr & Baehr (1993)
8. Baehr & Baehr (1995)
9. Baehr & Baehr (1998)
10. "-opsis", Merriam-Webster online, retrieved 2016-04-17

Bibliography

• Baehr, B. & Baehr, M. (1987), "The Australian Hersiliidae (Arachnida: Araneae): Taxonomy, phylogeny, zoogeography" (PDF), Invertebrate Taxonomy 1: 351–437, retrieved 2016-04-17
• Baehr, B. & Baehr, M. (1988), "On Australian Hersiliidae from the South Australian Museum (Arachnida: Araneae). Supplement to the revision of the Australian Hersiliidae", Records of the South Australian Museum 22 (1): 13–20
• Baehr, B. & Baehr, M. (1989), "Three new species of genus Tamopsis Baehr & Baehr from Western Australia (Arachnida, Araneae, Hersiliidae). Second supplement to the revision of the Australian Hersiliidae", Records of the South Australian Museum 14 (3): 309–320
• Baehr, B. & Baehr, M. (1992), "New species and new records of genus Tamopsis Baehr & Baehr, (Arachnida, Araneae, Hersiliidae). Third supplement to the revision of the Australian Hersiliidae", Records of the South Australian Museum 16 (1): 61–77
• Baehr, B. & Baehr, M. (1993), "New species and new records of Hersiliidae from Australia, with an updated key to all Australian species (Arachnida: Araneae: Hersiliidae): Fourth supplement to the revision of the Australian Hersiliidae", Records of the South Australian Museum 16 (3): 247–391
• Baehr, B. & Baehr, M. (1995), "New species and new records of Hersiliidae from Australia (Arachnida, Araneae, Hersiliidae). Fifth supplement to the revision of the Australian Hersiliidae", Records of the South Australian Museum (Suppl. 52): 107–118
• Baehr, B. & Baehr, M. (1998), "New species and new records of Hersiliidae from Australia (Arachnida: Araneae: Hersiliidae). Sixth supplement to the revision of the Australian Hersiliidae", Records of the South Australian Museum 19: 13–38