AW Arachnid Book: Spiders (Araneae) - Photos & Descriptions

[Toko]

Genus Oxyopes (Golden or Grass Lynx Spiders)

Length: 5-12 mm. Oxyopes has the integument covered with yellow to grey spatulate setae giving the spider its cryptic colour to blend in with the vegetation. Oxyopes actively searches for prey, it stalks and often leaps from branch to leaf and finally pouncing on its prey or leaping a few centimeters into the air to catch flying insects. All the prey is caught with the legs used as a basket, the spines assisting in detection and capture. Oxyopes attaches a dragline as it moves from point to point similar to the family Salticidae (jumping spiders) and is a major predator of insects on plants – good for the garden as its bite is harmless – and of pest insects in agricultural crops.
Oxyopids fix their egg cases to vegetation supported by means of strands of silk. Oxyopes normally straddles her roughly spherical egg case and produces about 18-100 eggs per egg case.

[BluTuna]

Scaly Head Lynx Spider Oxyopes cf hoggi
Family Oxyopidae




Kruger National Park


Links:
http://v3.boldsystems.org/index.php/Tax ... xid=517821

[Klipspringer]

Tropical Tent Web Spider Cyrtophora citricola
Family: Araneidae. Subfamily: Cyrtophorinae

Kruger National Park

Life Style
Sedentary, web-bound.

Description
Adult females average just over 10 mm in body length and are fairly robust. Males are very small, averaging about 3 mm in length. Females and males are typically medium brown in color, but may have a darker foliate mark on the dorsum of the abdomen. Both can change the background color of the abdomen from very pale to very dark. The abdomen is longer than it is wide, and raised, with distinct, blunt tubercles.

The only species of the genus Cyrtophora in South Africa is Cyrtophora citricola. But due to the wide range of morphological variation in colour and shape, it is questionable whether they all belong to the cosmopolitan species C. citricola.

Web and retreat
The distinctive web is a globe of crisscrossed, tangled threads, commonly found in the middle of low vegetation. In the centre of the globe lies a horizontal or near-horizontal fine orb web, usually pulled up slightly at the hub to form a tent-like sheet.
The spider hangs beneath the web while awaiting prey. The tangled threads and foundation lines of the web act as knockdown threads; prey flying into them falls onto the horizontal orb web.

Distribution
Worldwide.

Habitat
Their webs are made in build-up areas and gardens, in trees, bushes, using plants or low vegetation.

Reproduction
Once adult, males usually stop eating and using webs. They will seek out receptive females, mate and then die shortly after. The female produces one to three cocoons of eggs after which she may die or live long enough to guard her offspring.

Venom
Harmless.

Links: Biodiversity Explorer

[Klipspringer]

Blondeli's Hairy Field Spider Neoscona blondeli
Suborder Araneomorphae. Family Araneidae. Subfamily Araneinae

Kruger National Park

Description
Carapace is cream to brown to greyish black bearing dense white setae.
Body length: female 6-9 mm, male 4-6 mm.

Distribution
A very common species with wide distribution throughout the Afrotropical Region, it is widespread in South Africa.

Habitat
Orb webs are made at night in vegetation and removed in the early morning.

[Klipspringer]

Grass Lynx Spider Oxyopes vogelsangeri
Family Oxyopidae


© ExFmem
Kruger National Park


Description
Size 4-9 mm. Slender build, long legs, uniform body colour. Carapace is yellowish with eye region darker. Abdomen is similar colour as carapace but hair covering it gives it a shiny appearance. Legs are yellowish with long strong setae.

Habitat
Rare species sampled from grass.

Links:
https://books.google.de/books?id=RKs_Dw ... ri&f=false

[Klipspringer]

Black Spot Hairy Field Spider Araneus nigroquadratus
Family: Araneidae. Subfamily: Araneinae. Tribe: Araneini

Araneus nigroquadratus.jpg (171.19 KiB) Viewed 4974 times

KZN, South Africa © GlosterBirder


Life Style
Sedentary, web-bound.

Description
Size: female 8-9 mm, male 3-4 mm. Eyes: 8 in 2 rows.
Carapace dark hairy, covered with white setae, moderately arched without horny outgrowths. The abdomen is soft and hairy; overlapping the carapace; yellowish grey with dark markings, ventrally with yellow markings bordered by white. The legs are spiny and tibiae II have ventral spines; legs dorsally bearing white setae, darker at tips; femora are shiny.

Web and retreat
They make orb webs in low vegetation.

Distribution
Namibia, South Africa (Eastern Cape, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Western Cape)

Habitat
Forested areas.

Behaviour
They usually do not rest in the middle of the web – at least not in daylight – and stay in retreats made to the side of the web between leaves with a signal thread running to the hub of the web.


Links:
http://www.arc.agric.za/arc-ppri/Docume ... LIESAE.pdf
https://books.google.de/books?id=RKs_Dw ... us&f=false

[Klipspringer]

Rear Horned Baboon Spider, South African Horned Baboon Spider Ceratogyrus bechuanicus, Ceratogyrus darlingii
Suborder Mygalomorphae. Family Theraphosidae. Subfamily Harpactirinae

© PJL
Kruger National Park, Satara

Genus Ceratogyrus: diagnostic characters
Foveal tubercle a low dome or prominent horn, varies in shape between species; eyes grouped in a small rectangle on a compact tubercle; rastellum absent; dense scopulae on side of chelicerae; labium and endites with cuspules; tarsal and metatarsal scopulae ventrally on all legs; abdomen oval, usually with fishbone pattern dorsally, uniformly setose; male with mating spur on tibia I; body size 30–55 mm.

Taxonomic Note:
Ceratogyrus bechuanicus, the most common and widespread horned baboon spider species in South Africa has ceased to exist and the species is now treated as C. darlingi. Richard Gallon has shown that the horn (more correctly foveal protuberance) shows considerable variation in size, curvature, width, angle and shape within the species C. darlingi. The shape of the foveal protuberance had previously been used to distinguish between C. darlingi and C. bechuanicus.

Description
Size: female 32-35 mm, male 9-10 mm. Carapace greyish brown; carapace with foveal protuberance in both sexes backwards projecting. Abdomen with darker spots; ventrally sub-abdominal band occurs only over and between anterior book-lung covers. Legs with entire ventral and prolateral surfaces of palpi and legs I to II that are darkened.

Distribution
South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique.

Natural history
Females and juveniles live in silk-lined burrows usually made in areas sparsely covered with grass.

Links:
https://www.tarantupedia.com/harpactiri ... s-darlingi
https://books.google.de/books?id=RKs_Dw ... sh&f=false

[Klipspringer]

Large Pied Jumping Spider Hyllus argyrotoxus
Family: Salticidae

© Sprocky
Male, Grietjie Private Reserve, Limpopo, South Africa



Description
Size: TL female 911 mm, male 810 mm. Carapace is dark, almost black; decorated with white bands and patches of white hair; clypeus with pale parallel lines. Tufts of long black hairs near lateral eyes of second row.
The legs have spots.
Abdomen is black with median white stripe ending in series of chevrons and spots. The lateral edge is white.

Weslowska.jpg (51.14 KiB) Viewed 4756 times

Wesolowska W., A. Russel-Smith, 2000. Jumping spiders from Mkomazi Game Reserve in Tanzania. Tropical Zoology, 13 (1): 39-41


Distribution
It is widesprad in the Afrotropical ecozone (recorded from Côte d'Ivoire, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Eswatini and South Africa).

distribution.jpg (8.16 KiB) Viewed 4767 times

© ExFmem

© ExFmem

© ExFmem

© ExFmem
Male, taken Sept. in Kruger National Park at Tamboti Camp



© ExFmem

© ExFmem
Juvenile, Kruger National Park at Tamboti Camp



© ExFmem

© ExFmem

© ExFmem

© ExFmem

© ExFmem
Juvenile, Kruger National Park at Tamboti Camp

Links:
https://www.jumpingspiders.co.za/gallery.html#h-link
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/489775 ... wse_photos
http://salticus.zoology.ubc.ca/salticid ... rgyrot.htm
https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... Salticidae

[ExFmem]

Jumping Spider Genus Natta (Karsch,1879)
Family: Salticidae

This African genus includes only two species: N. horizontalis (Karsch, 1879) and N. chionogaster (Simon, 1901).

Description
The body is dark with a blue metallic shine and a few pairs of glaring yellow, white to orange-red patches on the abdomen. The carapace is edged with a thin white band. In males the front legs are more robust bearing a fringe of hair on the tibiae.

There seem to be few if any macroscopic features that separate these two species, because most macroscopic features are shared:
*Both have the thin white line around the carapace, often but not always extending and broadening unto the clypeus.
* Both have the white spots on both ends of tibia I, the white spot above the spinnerets and white spots laterally and slightly below the abdomen.
*Males of both species have the black brushes on their front tibiae.
*Were it not for the differences in the structure of their copulatory organs they would likely have been regarded as conspecific.

In Wesolowska’s (1993) Revision of the Genus Natta, she stated, in fresh specimens "probably" coloration of abdomen may be helpful :
*In N. chionogaster the color is rather uniform or with delicate light spots. The yellowy freckles are smaller and fainter than the bold, more clearly defined 'painted' marks of N. horizontalis. 􏱟􏱴􏰠 􏱞􏰠􏰰􏱻􏱼
*In N. horizontalis the color "usually" has contrasting orange spots. Males and females of N. horizontalis have bold, usually rounded orange to red dots on their abdomen. In some cases the dots fuse to form a reticulate pattern.

To separate N. horizonatlis and N. chionogaster with confidence, a microscopic examination of their copulatary organs is indicated.
􏰩􏱾 􏰇􏰈􏰌 􏱳􏰰 􏰭􏰴􏱚􏰷 􏱑􏱠􏱪 􏱈􏱣􏰰􏱿􏲀􏱷􏰣
Distribution of Natta in South Africa




https://www.ispotnature.org/communities ... long-story

https://wsc.nmbe.ch

https://bioone.org/journals/african-inv ... .0105.full

[ExFmem]

Jumping Spider Natta cf. chionogaster (Simon, 1901)
Family: Salticidae






Kruger Lower Sabie Camp by ExF (male)


Description
Size: TL female and male 4-5 mm. Carapace is dark with numerous iridescent scales, narrow white band around eye, eye circled with red setae. Abdomen is black with 5 - 7 small yellowish dots. Leg I black with white spot at apex of patella and tibiae; legs II to IV are yellow to light brown.

Distribution
Known from South Africa, D.R. Congo and Namibia.

Habitat and Biology
This species is usually found in the vicinity of foraging ants, especially Anoplolepis custodiens F. Smith, which it mimics in its movements and metallic scales on the body. In central South Africa it is clearly less common than N. horizontalis Karsch, 1879.


https://www.ispotnature.org/communities ... long-story

https://www.jumpingspiders.co.za/gallery.html#n-link

https://wsc.nmbe.ch

https://bioone.org/journals/african-inv ... .0105.full

Field Guide to South African Spiders, Ansie Dippenaar-Schoeman - 2014