Misplaced Pages

Hypochilus thorelli

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Peter coxhead (talk | contribs) at 07:47, 12 October 2015 (Web: bit more). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 07:47, 12 October 2015 by Peter coxhead (talk | contribs) (Web: bit more)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

Hypochilus thorelli
Feeding on a katydid
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Infraorder: Araneomorphae
Family: Hypochilidae
Genus: Hypochilus
Species: H. thorelli
Binomial name
Hypochilus thorelli
Marx, 1888

Hypochilus thorelli is a species of spider in the family Hypochilidae.

Description

The female has a cephalothorax about 5.5 mm long and an abdomen (opisthosoma) about 9 mm long. The male is smaller, with a cephalothorax of about 4 mm and an abdomen of about 6 mm. Both sexes have very long legs: the first leg of the the female is about 63 mm long; the male has longer and thinner legs, the first leg being about 80 mm long. The cephalothorax of both sexes is light yellowish grey, with a darker star shape underneath. The upper surface of the abdomen is greyish with irregular black lines and marks; the under surface is whiter. There are eight eyes; two clusters of three each on either side and two more central eyes. Both a cribellum and a calamistrum are present.

Like all species in the family Hypochilidae, Hypochilus thorelli has four book lungs, like mesothele and mygalomorph spiders and unlike almost all other araneomorph spiders. The outlines of the lungs are visible on the under surface of the abdomen.

Web

Like other members of the family, Hypochilus thorelli makes a "lampshade-shaped" web. The web is usually fixed to the underside of an overhang. The spider first makes a circular "mat" of silk and then uses this as the top of a cylindrical web that widens downwards and is open at the bottom like a lampshade. The web is held taut by threads of silk connecting it to the substrate below. The stickiness of the web is created by extremely fine strands of cribellate silk, not by glue. The spider rests at the top of the web, with its long legs outstretched and touching the edges of the cylinder.

Taxonomy

Hypochilus thorelli was first described by George Marx in 1888, the genus Hypochilus being erected for this purpose. The genus name is derived from the Greek hypo, below, and cheilos, lip, referring to the position of the labium. The species name honours Tamerlan Thorell. The unique combination of features – four book lungs like mygalomorph spiders but a cribellum like araneomorph spiders – led to Marx placing it in a new family, Hypochilidae.

References

  1. ^ "Taxon details Hypochilus thorelli Marx, 1888", World Spider Catalog, Natural History Museum Bern, retrieved 2015-10-11
  2. ^ Marx, G. (1888), "On a new and interesting spider", Entomologica Americana, 4: 160–162


Stub icon

This spider-related article is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

Categories: