Thelacantha
Thelacantha is a spider genus of the Araneidae family with only one described species, T. brevispina.[1] The species is closely related to Gasteracantha, and was synonymized with it in 1859, but revalidated in 1974.[2]
Distribution
The species is found Madagascar, in southern Asia from India to Philippines, Japan and Australia.[1][2]
Taxonomy
Saito described three other Thelacantha species in 1933, which were later synonymized with T. brevispina.[2] T. brevispina has quite often been misidentified as Gasteracantha mammosa, which is now G. cancriformis.[2]
T. brevispina has gone through a checkered name history:
- Plectana brevispina Doleschall, 1857
- Plectana roseolimbata Doleschall, 1859
- Plectana flavida Doleschall, 1859
- Gasteracantha mammeata Thorell, 1859
- Gasteracantha guttata Thorell, 1859
- Gasteracantha borbonica Vinson, 1863
- Gasteracantha alba Vinson, 1863
- Gasteracantha canningensis Stoliczka, 1869
- Gasteracantha suminata L. Koch, 1871
- Gasteracantha mastoidea L. Koch, 1872
- Stanneoclavis suminata Karsch, 1878
- Stanneoclavis mastoidea Karsch, 1878
- Actinacantha maculata Karsch, 1878
- Gasteracantha brevispina Thorell, 1878
- Gasteracantha observatrix O. P.-Cambridge, 1879
- Gasteracantha mammosa Hasselt, 1882
- Gasteracantha flavida Hasselt, 1882
- Stanneoclavis latronum Simon, 1890
- Gasteracantha brevispina Workman & Workman, 1892
- Gasteracantha mammosa Dahl, 1914
- Gasteracantha sola Saito, 1933
- Gasteracantha sparsa Saito, 1933
- Gasteracantha formosana Saito, 1933
- Gasteracantha brevispina Chrysanthus, 1959
- Gasteracantha brevispina Chrysanthus, 1960
- Gasteracantha (T.) brevispina Chrysanthus, 1971
- Gasteracantha mammosa Yaginuma, 1960
- Thelacantha brevispina Benoit, 1964
- Thelacantha brevispina Emerit, 1974
- Gasteracantha mammosa Tikader & Biswas, 1981
- Gasteracantha mammosa Tikader, 1982
- Gasteracantha mammosa Chikuni, 1989
- Gasteracantha mammosa Feng, 1990
- Gasteracantha mammosa Chen & Gao, 1990
- Gasteracantha mammosa Barrion & Litsinger, 1995
- Gasteracantha mammosa Yin et al., 1997
- Thelacantha brevispina Song, Zhu & Chen, 1999
- Thelacantha brevispina Tanikawa, 2007
- Thelacantha brevispina Tanikawa, 2009
Description
Females grow to a body size of about 6–10 mm, with males reaching a size of 3-5mm.[1]
See also
- ^ a b c Murphy & Murphy (2000): 100
- ^ a b c d World Spider Catalog
References
- Murphy, Frances & Murphy, John (2000): An Introduction to the Spiders of South East Asia. Malaysian Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur.
- Platnick, Norman I. (2011): The world spider catalog, version 11.5. American Museum of Natural History.
Further reading