Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 1016 No. 1: 8 Jul. 2005
Type: Articles
Published: 2005-07-08
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.1016.1.7
Page range: 57–64
Abstract views: 43
PDF downloaded: 2

Melychiopharis: an atypical orb-weaving spider from South America (Araneae: Araneidae)

Laboratório de Artrópodes, Instituto Butantan. Av. Vital Brasil 1500, CEP 05503-900, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Laboratório de Artrópodes, Instituto Butantan. Av. Vital Brasil 1500, CEP 05503-900, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138-2902
Araneae Heterognatha Testudinaria transfer

Abstract

The monotypic genus Melychiopharis Simon is transferred from Theridiidae to Araneidae, based mainly on characteristics of the male palp. Melychiopharis cynips Simon 1895 is redescribed and illustrated, including the first illustrations of a male specimen.

References

  1. Agnarsson, I. (2004) Morphological phylogeny of cobweb spiders and their relatives (Araneae, Araneoidea, Theridiidae). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 141, 447ñ626.

    Bonnet, P. (1957) Bibliographia Araneorum, Toulouse, 2(3), 1927ñ3026.

    Brignoli, P. (1983) A Catalogue of the Araneae described between 1940 and 1981. Manchester University Press, Manchester, 755 pp.

    Forster, R.R., Platnick, N.I. & Coddington, J. (1990) A proposal and review of the spider family Synotaxidae (Araneae, Araneoidea), with notes on theridiid interrelationships. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 193, 1ñ116.

    Griswold, C.E., Coddington, J.A., Hormiga, G. & Scharff, N. (1998) Phylogeny of the orb-web building spiders (Araneae, Orbiculariae: Deinopoidea, Araneoidea). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 123, 1ñ99.

    Levi, H.W. (1961) Evolutionary trends in the development of palpal sclerites in the spider family Theridiidae. Journal of Morphology, 108, 1ñ10.

    Levi, H.W. (1996) The American orb weavers Hypognatha, Encyosaccus, Xylethrus, Gasteracantha, and Enacrosoma (Araneae, Araneidae). Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 155, 89ñ157.

    Levi, H.W. 2002. Keys to the genera of araneid orbweavers (Araneae, Araneidae) of the Americas. Journal of Arachnology, 30, 527ñ562.

    Levi, H. W. (in press). The spider genera Heterognatha, Testudinaria and Ursa in South America (Araneae: Araneoidea). Bulletin of the British Arachnological Society.

    Platnick, N.I. (1989) Advances in Spider Taxonomy, 1981ñ1987: A Supplement to Brignoli's A Catalogue of the Araneae described between 1940 and 1981. Manchester University Press, Manchester, 673 pp.

    Platnick, N.I. (2005) The world spider catalog, version 5.5. American Museum of Natural History, online at http://research.amnh.org/entomology/spiders/catalog/index.html (Accessed March 2005).

    Roewer, C.F. (1942) Katalog der Araneae von 1758 bis 1940. Bremen, 1, 1ñ1040.

    Scharff, N. & Coddington, J.A. (1997) A phylogenetic analysis of the orb-weaving spider family Araneidae (Arachnida, Araneae). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 120, 355ñ434.

    Simon, E. (1895) Histoire naturelle des araignées. Paris, 1, 761ñ1084.