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

Posted by
  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 and new species of the hitherto American endemic genus Hibana Brescovit, 1991 from Ascension Island (Araneae: Anyphaenidae)

Posted by

 


First record and new species of the hitherto American endemic genus Hibana Brescovit, 1991 from Ascension Island (Araneae: Anyphaenidae)

Abstract
A new species of the genus Hibana Brescovit, 1991, previously known only from the Americas, is described from Ascension Island, based on both sexes: Hibana ascensionensis sp. nov. complemented with colour photographs of specimen habitus, male chelicera, and the copulatory organs of both sexes. Hitherto , the family Anyphaenidae Bertkau, 1878 had not been recorded from Ascension Island, nor any other mid-Atlantic island. The new species is related to, but distinct from, H. tenuis (L. Koch, 1866) and H. talmina Brescovit, 1991. The unusual indentation of male chelicerae in Hibana is documented and figured in detail for the first time. 

SHERWOOD, D., MARUSIK, Yu.M., SHARP, A. & WILKINS, V. (2024) First record and new species of the hitherto American endemic genus Hibana Brescovit, 1991 from Ascension Island (Araneae: Anyphaenidae) Arachnology 19(8): 1139–1142