Macrothele
| Macrothele | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Threatening female M. gigas | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae |
| Suborder: | Mygalomorphae |
| Family: | Hexathelidae |
| Genus: | Macrothele Ausserer, 1871 |
| Type species | |
| Mygale calpeiana Walckenaer, 1805 | |
| Species | |
|
See text. | |
| Diversity | |
| 26 species | |
Macrothele is a genus of mygalomorph spiders, some of which posses venom of clinically significant toxicity that also demonstrates potentially medically beneficial effects against several forms of cancer.
Most species occur in Asia from India to Japan and Java, with four found in Africa, and two in Europe.
Description
Spiders of this genus are fairly large, with Chinese species ranging from one to three centimeters in female body length. Males are smaller, sometimes only half the size.
These spiders build tube-webs or funnel-webs under rocks, logs or crevices in the ground.[1]
Distribution
Macrothele ranges from the western Mediterranean and West Africa to Southeast Asia and China. However, there is some doubt if the western and eastern species should be grouped in the same genus.[2]
Name
The genus name is derived from Ancient Greek makro "big" and thele, which refers to the spinnerets.
Species
- Macrothele abrupta Benoit, 1965 — Congo
- Macrothele amamiensis Shimojana & Haupt, 1998 — Ryukyu Islands
- Macrothele bannaensis Xu & Yin, 2001 — China
- Macrothele calpeiana (Walckenaer, 1805) — Spain, North Africa
- Macrothele camerunensis Simon, 1903 — Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea
- Macrothele cretica Kulczynski, 1903 — Crete
- Macrothele decemnotata Simon, 1909 — Vietnam
- Macrothele gigas Shimojana & Haupt, 1998 — Ryukyu Islands
- Macrothele guizhouensis Hu & Li, 1986 — China
- Macrothele holsti Pocock, 1901 — Taiwan
- Macrothele hunanica Zhu & Song, 2000 — China
- Macrothele incisa Benoit, 1965 — Congo
- Macrothele maculata (Thorell, 1890) — Myanmar, Sumatra, Java
- Macrothele maculata annamensis Hogg, 1922 — Vietnam
- Macrothele monocirculata Xu & Yin, 2000 — China
- Macrothele palpator Pocock, 1901 — China, Hong Kong
- Macrothele proserpina Simon, 1909 — Vietnam
- Macrothele raveni Zhu, Li & Song, 2000 — China
- Macrothele segmentata Simon, 1892 — Malaysia
- Macrothele simplicata (Saito, 1933) — Taiwan
- Macrothele taiwanensis Shimojana & Haupt, 1998 — Taiwan
- Macrothele triangularis Benoit, 1965 — Congo
- Macrothele variabiis Pavesi, 1898 — Java
- Macrothele vidua Simon, 1906 — India
- Macrothele yaginumai Shimojana & Haupt, 1998 — Ryukyu Islands
- Macrothele yani Xu, Yin & Griswold, 2002 — China
- Macrothele yunnanica Zhu & Song, 2000 — China
See also
Footnotes
References
- Zhu, M.S. & Song, D.X. (2000): Review of the Chinese funnel-web spiders of the genus Macrothele, with descriptions of two new species (Araneae:Hexathelidae). The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 48(1): 59-64. PDF (with key to Chinese species)
- Platnick, Norman I. (2008): The world spider catalog, version 8.5. American Museum of Natural History.
- Murphy, Frances & Murphy, John (2000): An Introduction to the Spiders of South East Asia. Malaysian Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur.
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