Ancylometes
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Ancylometes is a fishing spider genus from South America, where they live near ponds and small lakes. The spiderlings can walk over water rather fast, in a fashion similar to water striders. This is because of fine air-trapping hairs on the tips of their legs. They can dive underwater, and will consume anything from insects to small lizards and fish. They can stay underwater for over an hour, using air trapped in hairs surrounding their book lungs as a physical lung. If they do catch fish, they consume them on the ground of the water.
A. rufus females have a body length of up to 5cm (12cm legspan), while males grow to up to 3cm, but with longer legs. Both sexes are brown with dark spots on the abdomen, with two thin lines along the carapace of the male.
The male immobilizes the female with silk during mating, while the female enters an immobile state by itself. The female produces a cocoon after about a week, which is carried with the fangs. After a month, the female builds a nursery web above the ground which is about 10cm in diameter. More than 100 spiderlings (each about 2mm long) hatch inside the egg case. A spiderling takes about a year to mature. Males die after at the most 16 months, while females can live for more than two years.
Until 1967, the genus was considered to belong to the family Pisauridae, but was then moved to the family Ctenidae.
The genus name is derived in part from Greek ancylo "crooked, bent".
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[edit] Species
- Ancylometes amazonicus Simon, 1898 (Peru, Brazil)
- Ancylometes birabeni (Carcavallo & Martínez, 1961) (Argentina)
- Ancylometes bogotensis (Keyserling, 1877) (Nicaragua to Bolivia)
- Ancylometes concolor (Perty, 1833) (Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina)
- Ancylometes hewitsoni (F. O. P.-Cambridge, 1897) (Bolivia, Brazil)
- Ancylometes japura Höfer & Brescovit, 2000 (Brazil)
- Ancylometes jau Höfer & Brescovit, 2000 (Brazil)
- Ancylometes pantanal Höfer & Brescovit, 2000 (Brazil)
- Ancylometes riparius Höfer & Brescovit, 2000 (Brazil)
- Ancylometes rufus (Walckenaer, 1837) (Northern South America)
- Ancylometes terrenus Höfer & Brescovit, 2000 (Brazil)
[edit] References
- Walking on the water
- Merrett, P. (1988). Notes on the biology of the neotropical pisaurid, Ancylometes bogotensis (Keyserling) (Araneae: Pisauridae). Bull. Br. arachnol. Soc. 7:197-201.
[edit] Further reading
- Gasnier, T.R., Salette de Azevedo, C., Torres-Sanchez, M.P. & Höfer, H. (2002). Adult size of eight hunting spider species in Central Amazonia: Temporal variations and sexual dimorphisms. Journal of Arachnology 30:146-154. PDF
