Aname
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| Aname | ||||||||||||||
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 fangs of A. atra
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The spider genus Aname is endemic to Australia, with one species (A. tasmanica) found only on Tasmania. It contains the black wishbone spider, A. atra.
Spiders in this genus, together with the related and very similar genera Chenistonia and Namea, are called "wishbone spiders", for the shape of their open silk-lined burrow, which has the shape of the letter "Y", with one arm shorter than the other. Only the longer arm reaches the surface. The shorter arm is believed to allow the spider to survive flooding by trapping an air bubble.
While Aname prefers dry open country and occurs throughout much of Australia (though mostly inland), Chenistonia occurs mostly in south and western Australia, and Namea is only known along the east coasts in rain forests.
The Lesser Wishbone Spider (A. distincta) occurs through lowland open forests of the Moreton Valley as far north as Eidsvold and Gayndah, the Greater Wishbone Spider A. pallida from Gladstone along the dry coastal corridors to Cairns.
Bites from Aname are rare, but females of A. inimica (also called "unfriendly" by aboriginals) are reported to have bitten several people, resulting in local pain, redness and soreness.
[edit] Species
- Aname armigera Rainbow & Pulleine, 1918 — Western Australia
- Aname atra (Strand, 1913) — South Australia
- Aname aurea Rainbow & Pulleine, 1918 — New South Wales
- Aname barrema Raven, 1985 — Queensland
- Aname blackdownensis Raven, 1985 — Queensland
- Aname camara Raven, 1985 — Queensland
- Aname carina Raven, 1985 — Queensland
- Aname coenosa Rainbow & Pulleine, 1918 — South Australia
- Aname collinsorum Raven, 1985 — Queensland
- Aname comosa Rainbow & Pulleine, 1918 — South Australia
- Aname cuspidata (Main, 1954) — Western Australia
- Aname distincta (Rainbow, 1914) — Queensland
- Aname diversicolor (Hogg, 1902) — Queensland
- Aname earthwatchorum Raven, 1984 — Queensland
- Aname fuscocincta Rainbow & Pulleine, 1918 — Western Australia
- Aname grandis Rainbow & Pulleine, 1918 — South Australia
- Aname hirsuta Rainbow & Pulleine, 1918 — South Australia
- Aname humptydoo Raven, 1985 — Northern Territory
- Aname inimica Raven, 1985 — Queensland, New South Wales
- Aname kirrama Raven, 1984 — Queensland
- Aname longitheca Raven, 1985 — Queensland
- Aname maculata (Rainbow & Pulleine, 1918) — Western Australia
- Aname mainae Raven, 2000 — South Australia
- Aname pallida L. Koch, 1873 — Queensland
- Aname platypus (L. Koch, 1875) — Australia
- Aname robertsorum Raven, 1985 — Queensland
- Aname tasmanica Hogg, 1902 — Tasmania
- Aname tepperi (Hogg, 1902) — Southern Australia
- Aname tigrina Raven, 1985 — Queensland
- Aname tropica Raven, 1984 — Queensland
- Aname turrigera Main, 1994 — Western Australia, South Australia
- Aname villosa (Rainbow & Pulleine, 1918) — Western Australia
- Aname warialda Raven, 1985 — Queensland, New South Wales
[edit] References
- Robert Raven: Wishbone Spiders
- Platnick, Norman I. (2008): The world spider catalog, version 8.5. American Museum of Natural History.
