Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Type: Articles
Published: 2010-03-11
Page range: 19–36
Abstract views: 60
PDF downloaded: 1

Mr. Darwin’s mysterious spider: on the type species of the genus Leucauge White, 1841 (Tetragnathidae, Araneae)

Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Biological Sciences, The George Washington University, Washington, D.C. 20052, USA current address: Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen, Department of Entomology, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100, Copenhagen, Denmark
Ruth Weintraub Professor of Biology, Department of Biological Sciences, The George Washington University, Washington, D.C. 20052, USA
Araneae Taxonomy systematics orb weavers morphology spider webs

Abstract

For more than a century and a half the identity of Linyphia (Leucauge) argyrobapta White, 1841, the type species of the spider genus Leucauge, has been a mystery and an obstacle for revisionary work on this orb weaving genus. The only known specimen of argyrobapta, the type, was collected by Charles Darwin in Rio de Janeiro during the voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle and was lost after White’s description was published. We designate a neotype for Linyphia argyrobapta (White, 1841) based on specimens collected in the type locality. The common and widespread American species Leucauge venusta (Walckenaer, 1841) is a senior synonym of L. argyrobapta.

References

  1. Álvarez-Padilla, F. (2007) Systematics of the spider genus Metabus O. P.-Cambridge, 1899 (Araneoidea: Tetragnathidae) with additions to the tetragnathid fauna of Chile and comments on the phylogeny of Tetragnathidae. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 151, 285–335.

    Álvarez–Padilla, F., & Hormiga, G. (2008) A protocol for digesting internal soft tissues and mounting spiders for scanning electron microscopy. Journal of Arachnology, 35, 538–542.

    Álvarez-Padilla F., Dimitrov D., Giribet G., & Hormiga G. (2009). Phylogenetic relationships of the spider family Tetragnathidae (Araneae, Araneoidea) based on morphological and DNA sequence data. Cladistics 25, 109–146.

    Archer, A. F. (1951) Studies in the orbweaving spiders (Argiopidae). 1. American Museum Novitates, 1487, 1–52.

    Baldissera, R., Ganade, G., & Benedet Fontoura, S. (2004) Web spider community response along an edge between pasture and Araucaria forest. Biological Conservation, 118, 403–409.

    Banks, N. (1909) Arachnida of Cuba. Estación central agronómica de Cuba, Second Report. II: 150–174.

    Bishop, L., & Connolly, S. R. (1992) Web Orientation, Thermoregulation, and Prey Capture Efficiency in a Tropical Forest Spider. Journal of Arachnology, 20, 173–178.

    Bonnet, P. (1957) Bibliographia Araneorum. Analyse méthodique de toute la literature aranéologique jusqu’en 1939. Tome II, 3e partie: G-M. Toulouse, Les Artisans de l’Imprimerie Douladoure, 1927–3026 pp.

    Buckles, V. P. (1999) Can the Pattern of the Leucauge venusto Webs Be Used to Indicate Environmental Contamination? Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, 62, 563–569.

    Cambridge, F. O. P.-. (1902a) Arachnida - Araneida and Opiliones. In Biologia Centrali-Americana, Zoology. London, 2, 313–424.

    Cambridge, F. O. P.-. (1902b) A revision of the genera of Araneae or spiders with reference to their type species. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, (7)9, 5–20.

    Cambridge, F. O. P.-. (1903) Arachnida - Araneida and Opiliones. In Biologia Centrali-Americana, Zoology. London, 2, 425–464.

    Cameron, H. D. (2005) An etymological dictionary of North American spider genus names. In: Spiders of North America: an identification manual. (Eds. D. Ubick et al.). American Arachnological Society, USA, 377 pp.

    Castro, Teresita de Jesus. (1995) Estudio comparativo del comportamiento reproductor, en las arañas del género Leucauge (Araneae, Tetragnathinae), del Soconusco, Chiapas. Universidad de Ciencias y Artes del Estado de Chiapas, Mexico, Thesis Lic.

    Coddington, J. A. (1990) Ontogeny and homology in the male palpus of orb-weaving spiders and their relatives, with comments on phylogeny (Araneoclada: Araneoidea, Deinopoidea). Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, 496, 1–52.

    Craig, C. L., & Freeman, C. R. (1991) Effects of predator visibility on prey encounter: a case study on aerial web weaving spiders. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 29, 249–254.

    Dimitrov, D., & Hormiga, G. (2009) Revision and cladistic analysis of the orbweaving spider genus Cyrtognatha Keyserling, 1881 (Araneae, Tetragnathidae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 317, 1–140.

    Dimitrov D., & Hormiga G. In press. Pinkfloydia, an extraordinary new genus of spiders from Western Australia with an expanded hypothesis on the phylogeny of Tetragnathidae (Araneae). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.

    Dondale, C. D., Redner, J. H., Paquin, P., & Levi, H. W. (2003) The insects and arachnids of Canada. Part 23. The orb-weaving spiders of Canada and Alaska (Araneae: Uloboridae, Tetragnathidae, Araneidae, Theridiosomatidae). NRC Research Press, Ottawa, Canada, 371 pp.

    Eberhard, W. G. (1988) Memory of distances and directions moved as cues during temporary spiral construction in the spider Leucauge mariana (A., Araneidae). Journal of Insect Behavior, 1, 51–66.

    Eberhard, W. G., & Huber, B. A. (1998) Courtship, copulation, and sperm transfer in Leucauge mariana (Araneae, Tetragnathidae) with implications for higher classification. Journal of Arachnology, 26, 342–368.

    Eberhard, W. G. (1987) Effects of gravity on temporary spiral construction by Leucauge mariana (Araneae: Araneidae). Journal of Ethology, 5, 29–36.

    Eberhard, W. G. (2001) Under the influence: webs and building behavior of Plesiometa argyra (Araneae, Tetragnathidae) when parasitized by Hymenoepimecis argyraphaga (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae). Journal of Arachnology, 29, 354–366.

    Emerton, J. H. (1884) New England spiders of the family Epeiridae. Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 6, 295–342.

    Emerton, J. H. (1902) The common spiders of the United States. Boston, pp. 1–225.

    Franganillo, B., P. (1936) Los arácnidos de Cuba hasta 1936. Cultural, La Habana, Cuba, 183 pp.

    Grostal, P., & Walter, D. E. (1999) Host Specificity and Distribution of the Kleptobiotic Spider Argyrodes antipodianus (Araneae, Theridiidae) on Orb Webs in Queensland. Australia Journal of Arachnology, 27(2), 522–530.

    Hénaut, Y., García-Ballinas, J. A., & Alauzet, C. (2006) Variations in web construction in Leucauge venusta (Araneae, Tetragnathidae). Journal of Arachnology, 34(1), 234–240.

    Hénaut, Y., Pablo, J., Ibarra-Nuñez, G., & Williams, T. (2001) Retention, capture and consumption of experimental prey by orb-web weaving spiders in coffee plantations of Southern Mexico. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata, 98, 1–8.

    Hentz, N. M. (1847) Descriptions and figures of the araneides of the United States. Boston Journal of natural History, 5, 443–478.

    Hoffmaster, D. K. (1985) Resource Breadth in Orb-weaving Spiders: A Tropical-Temperate Comparison. Ecology, 66, 626–629

    Hormiga, G., Eberhard, W. G., & Coddington, J. A. (1995) Web-construction behaviour in Australian Phonognatha and the phylogeny of nephiline and tetragnathid spiders (Araneae: Tetragnathidae). Australian Journal of Zoology, 43, 313–364.

    Kato N., Takasago, M., Omasa, K., & Miyashita, T. I. (2008) Coadaptive changes in physiological and biophysical traits related to thermal stress in web spiders. Naturwissenschaften, 95, 1149–1153.

    Keynes, R. ed. (2000) Charles Darwin's zoology notes & specimen lists from H.M.S. Beagle. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, UK, 464pp.

    Keyserling, E. (1864) Beschreibungen neuer und wenig bekannter Arten aus der Familie Orbitelae Latr. oder Epeiridae Sund. Sitzungsberichte der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft Isis zu Dresden, 1863, 63–98, 119–154.

    Keyserling, E. (1893) Die Spinnen Amerikas. Epeiridae. Nürnberg, Germany 4, 209–377.

    Kuntner, M., Coddington, J., & Hormiga, G. (2008) Phylogeny of extant nephilid orb-weaving spiders (Araneae, Nephilidae): testing morphological and ethological homologies. Cladistics, 24, 147–217.

    Levi, H. W. (1980) The orb-weaver genus Mecynogea, the subfamily Metinae and the genera Pachygnatha, Glenognatha and Azilia of the subfamily Tetragnathinae north of Mexico (Araneae: Araneidae). Bulletin of the Museum of comparative Zoology Harvard, 149, 1–74.

    McCook, H. C. (1894) American spiders and their spinning work. Philadelphia 3, 1–285.

    Moya-Laraño, J., Vinković, D., Allard, C. M., & Foellmer, M. W. (2009) Optimal climbing speed explains the evolution of extreme sexual size dimorphism in spiders. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 22, 954–963.

    Moya-Laraño, J., Vinković, D., Allard, C. M., & Foellmer, M. W. (2007) Mass-mediated sex differences in climbing patterns support the gravity hypothesis of sexual size dimorphism. Web Ecology, 7, 106–112.

    Opell, B. D. (1997) The material cost and stickiness of capture threads and the evolution of orb-weaving spiders. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 62, 443–458.

    Opell, B. D., Bond, J. E., & Warner, D. A. (2006) The effects of capture spiral composition and orb-web orientation on prey interception. Zoology, 109, 339–345

    Petrunkevitch, A. (1930) The spiders of Porto Rico. Part two. Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 30, 159–356.

    Platnick, N. I. (2009) The world spider catalog, version 10.0. American Museum of Natural History, online at http://research.amnh.org/entomology/spiders/catalog/index.html (accessed 31 October 2009)

    Saito, S. (1933) Notes on the spiders from Formosa. Transactions of the Sapporo natural History Society, 13, 32–61.

    Schoener, T.W., & Spiller, D.A. (2006) Nonsynchronous recovery of community characteristics in island spiders after a catastrophic hurricane. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 103(7), 2220–2225.

    Simon, E. (1903) Arachnides de la Guinée espagnole. Memorias de la Real Sociedad Española de historia natural 1(3), 65–124.

    Takada, M., Baba, Y. G., Yanagi, Y., Terada, S., & Miyashita, T. (2008) Contrasting responses of web-building spiders to deer browsing among habitats and feeding guilds. Environmental Entomology, 37(4), 938–946.

    Tso, I.-M., Liao, C.-P., Huang, R.-P., & Yang, E.-C. (2006) Function of being colorful in web spiders: attracting prey or camouflaging oneself? Behavioral Ecology, 17, 606–613.

    Tso, I.-M., Huang, J.-P., & Liao, C.-P. (2007), Nocturnal hunting of a brightly coloured sit-and-wait predator. Animal Behaviour, 74, 787–793.

    Walckenaer, C. A. (1841) Histoire naturelle des Insects. Aptères. Paris 2, 1–549.

    Waterhouse, C. O. (1902) Index Zoologicus. An alphabetical List of Names and Genera and Subgenera proposed for Use in Zoology as recorded in the “Zoological record” 18801900, together with other Names not included in the “Nomenclator zoologicus” of S.H. Scudder. London, i–xii + 1–421 pp.

    White, A. (1841) Description of new or little known Arachnida. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 7, 471–477.

    Wiehle, H. (1967) Meta,-eine semientelegyne Gattung der Araneae (Arach.). Senckenbergiana Biologica, 48, 183–196.

    Yoshida, M. (2000) Predatory Behavior of Leucauge magnifica (Araneae: Tetragnathidae). Acta Arachnologica, 49, 117–123.

    Zhu, M. S., Song, D. X., & Zhang, J. X. (2003) Fauna Sinica: Invertebrata Vol. 35: Arachnida: Araneae: Tetragnathidae. Science Press, Beijing, China, vii + 418 pp.

    Zschokke, S., Hénaut, Y., Benjamin, S. P., & Garcia-Ballinas, J. A. (2006) Prey-capture strategies in sympatric web-building spiders. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 84, 964–973.