New predatory interaction of Trichonephila clavipes (Araneae: Nephilidae) on Fidicinini (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) in a forest fragment of the Neotropical region

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  New predatory interaction of Trichonephila clavipes (Araneae: Nephilidae) on Fidicinini (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) in a forest fragment of the Neotropical region Abstract Trichonephila clavipes (Araneae: Nephilidae) is an orb web-building spider whose diet is primarily based on flying insects. This note aims to report the first predatory interaction of T. clavipes on a cicada of the genus Fidicina (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) in a fragment of the Atlantic Forest in Brazil. The predation event was observed (ad libitum) in the Benjamin Maranhão Botanical Garden situated in the Mata do Buraquinho Wildlife Refuge, northeastern Brazil. A specimen of Fidicina sp. was found freshly dead and trapped in the web of T. clavipes. The nephilid was observed moving slowly between the ventral and dorsal regions of the Fidicina sp. without weaving a web around the cicadid. Then, T. clavipes was observed perched on the left side of the Fidicina sp., with its pedipalps and chelicerae manipulating the thorax ...

First record of the cob-web spider Platnickina adamsoni (Berland, 1934) from Ascension Island (Araneae: Theridiidae)

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First record of the cob-web spider Platnickina adamsoni (Berland, 1934) from Ascension Island (Araneae: Theridiidae)

Abstract 

Platnickina adamsoni (Berland, 1934) is recorded from Ascension Island for the first time, based on an examined adult female, collected by vegetation beating. The complex taxonomic history of P. adamsoni is discussed, to contextualize the significance of this record, which may have been misidentified as a similar congener – Platnickina mneon (Bösenberg & Strand, 1906) – if not for recent corrections to the literature by Dupérré (2023).

Sherwood, Danniella & Sharp, Adam. (2023). First record of the cob-web spider Platnickina adamsoni (Berland, 1934) from Ascension Island (Araneae: Theridiidae). SERKET The Arachnological Bulletin of the Middle East and North Africa. 19. 355-358. 
ResearchGate - Danni Sherwood