A new species of the mygalomorph spider genus Euagrus Ausserer (Araneae: Euagridae) from central Mexico and new records of E. gus Coyle from Tlaxcala

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  A new species of the mygalomorph spider genus Euagrus Ausserer (Araneae: Euagridae) from central Mexico and new records of E. gus Coyle from Tlaxcala Abstract  A new species of the spider genus Euagrus Ausserer, 1875 from temperate pine-oak forests in the states of Tlaxcala and Hidalgo, Mexico is described: E. pulque sp. nov. The description of the new species is based on male and female adult specimens. Additionally, Euagrus gus Coyle, 1988 is recorded for the very first time in the state of Tlaxcala. These species have sympatric distributions in La Malinche National Park, Tlaxcala. With this description, the diversity of the genus increases to 23 species, with Mexico harboring the highest diversity with 17 described species.  Valdez-Mondragón, A., Salinas-Velasco, H. V. & Bueno-Villegas, J. (2026). A new species of the mygalomorph spider genus Euagrus Ausserer (Araneae: Euagridae) from central Mexico and new records of E. gus Coyle from Tlaxcala. Zootaxa 5810 (...

Attack on Titan: a record of predation on the Chinese reddish mantis Hierodula chinensis (Mantodea, Mantidae) by the orb-web weaving spider Gibbaranea abscissa (Araneae, Araneidae)

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Attack on Titan: a record of predation on the Chinese reddish mantis Hierodula chinensis (Mantodea, Mantidae) by the orb-web weaving spider Gibbaranea abscissa (Araneae, Araneidae)

Abstract

Prey–predator interaction is a phenomenon important to our understanding of community dynamics. Mantises and web-weaving spiders are predators that belong to the same guild, and they can be each other’s predator and prey. However, their relationship is generally asymmetrical, with spiders often being the prey of the mantises. Here, we report a rare opposite case in which an adult female mantis, Hierodula chinensis Werner, 1929, was preyed upon by the orb-web weaving spider Gibbaranea abscissa (Karsch, 1879), without using a web, in a late autumn field in Japan. We suggest that differences in cold tolerance allowed the small spider to hunt a mantis prey that was approximately eight times its size.

Yamasaki K, Baba YG (2025) Attack on Titan: a record of predation on the Chinese reddish mantis Hierodula chinensis (Mantodea, Mantidae) by the orb-web weaving spider Gibbaranea abscissa (Araneae, Araneidae). Journal of Orthoptera Research 34(1): 131-134. https://doi.org/10.3897/jor.34.122095