Leucorchestris arenicola
| White Lady | |
|---|---|
 | |
| White Lady Spider in Namibia | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae |
| Family: | Sparassidae |
| Genus: | Leucorchestris |
| Species: | L. arenicola |
| Binomial name | |
| Leucorchestris arenicola Lawrence, 1962 | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Leucorchestris arenicola (commonly called the Dancing White Lady Spider) is a huntsman spider found in the deserts of Namibia. It should not be confused with the similarly named Wheel spider from the same locale. [1][2] It relies on seismic vibrations for communication.[1] It taps its foremost legs on the sand to send messages to other white lady spiders.[1] Male white lady spiders will travel more than a mile in one night searching for a mate.[1] If they do find a mate, they must be extremely careful, for drumming the wrong message can be deadly.[1] The species was first described by Reginald Frederick Lawrence in 1962, who described all the species in the Leucorchestris genus.[2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Henschel, Joh R. (August 2002). "Long-distance Wandering and Mating by the Dancing White Lady Spider (Leucorchestris arenicola) (Araneae, Sparassidae) Across Namib Dunes" (PDF). Journal of Arachnology (New York, NY, USA: JSTOR) 30 (2): 321–330. doi:10.1636/0161-8202(2002)030[0321:LDWAMB]2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0161-8202. OCLC 605198192. Archived from the original on 16 November 2010. Retrieved 22 April 2012.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Platnick, Norman I. (10 December 2011). "Fam. Sparassidae". The World Spider Catalog, Version 12.5. New York, NY, USA: American Museum of Natural History. doi:10.5531/db.iz.0001. Retrieved 22 April 2012.
External links
- Long-distance Wandering and Mating by the Dancing White Lady Spider (Leucorchestris arenicola) (Araneae, Sparassidae) Across Namib Dunes (PDF, 306 kB) by Joh R. Henschel (August 2002). From the Journal of Arachnology 30 (2): 321–330. Archived from the original on 16 November 2010.