Micrathena
| Micrathena | |
|---|---|
 | |
| M. sagittata | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae |
| Suborder: | Araneomorphae |
| Family: | Araneidae |
| Genus: | Micrathena Sundevall, 1833 |
| Species | |
|
M. sagittata | |
| Diversity | |
| 105 species | |
Micrathena sagittata and web, Gadsden Co. Florida.
The spider genus Micrathena contains more than a hundred species, most of them Neotropical woodland orb-weavers.
Only three species occur in the eastern United States: females of M. gracilis (the Spined Micrathena) have five pairs of conical tubercles / spines on the abdomen, female M. mitrata have two short posterior pairs, and female M. sagittata (the Arrow-shaped Micrathena) have three pairs.
Species with extremely long spines evolved at least eight times in the Micrathena genus and likely function as anti-predator defenses.[1]
References
- ↑ Magalhaes, Ivan L F; Santos, Adalberto J. (September 2012). "Phylogenetic analysis of Micrathena and Chaetacis spiders (Araneae: Araneidae) reveals multiple origins of extreme sexual size dimorphism and long abdominal spines". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 166 (1). doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2012.00831.x. Retrieved 2016-09-07.
- Hentz, N. M. (1850). Descriptions and figures of the araneides of the United States. Boston J. nat. Hist. 6: 18-35, 271-295.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Micrathena. |
- BugGuide: Pictures of Micrathena species
- Information about Micrathena
- Picture of Micrathena sp. (free for noncommercial use)
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/7/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.