Clitaetra

Clitaetra is a genus of spiders in a family Araneidae.[1] It was formerly placed in a separate family, Nephilidae. It occurs in Africa, Madagascar and Sri Lanka, hinting to a Gondwanan origin. a split between Clitaetra and related genera may be as old as 160 million years.[2]

Clitaetra
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Infraorder: Araneomorphae
Family: Araneidae
Subfamily: Nephilinae
Genus: Clitaetra
Simon, 1889[1]
Species

See text.

Diversity
6 species

The smallest species (C. thisbe) reaches 3.5 mm in female length, a biggest species can be as long as one centimetre.

Name

The etymology of the genus name is unknown.[2]

Species

As of May 2017, a World Spider Catalog accepted a following species:[1]

  • Clitaetra clathrata Simon, 1907 – West Africa
  • Clitaetra episinoides Simon, 1889 – Comoro Is.
  • Clitaetra irenae Kuntner, 2006 – South Africa
  • Clitaetra perroti Simon, 1894 – Madagascar
  • Clitaetra simoni Benoit, 1962 – Congo
  • Clitaetra thisbe Simon, 1903 – Sri Lanka

References

  1. "Gen. Clitaetra Simon, 1889", World Spider Catalog, Natural History Museum Bern, retrieved 2017-05-12
  2. Kuntner, M. 2006. Phylogenetic systematics of a Gondwanan nephilid spider lineage Clitaetrinae (Araneae, Nephilidae). Zoologica Scripta 35(1):19-62. PDF
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