First record of Thaumasia Perty, 1833 nursery web spider (Araneae: Pisauridae) preying upon Polistes canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) in the Neotropical region

Posted by
  First record of Thaumasia Perty, 1833 nursery web spider (Araneae: Pisauridae) preying upon Polistes canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) in the Neotropical region Abstract Thaumasia Perty, 1833 are opportunistic spiders that inhabit the Neotropical region. This study reports a spider of the genus Thaumasia preying upon Polistes canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) in semiarid region of Brazil. A spider of the genus Thaumasia was observed moving rapidly from the fountain's water surface to capture an individual of P. canadensis . After successfully capturing the wasp, Thaumasia sp. was observed partially perched on the wall of the fountain, with the prey still on the water surface and trapped by its chelicerae. The pedipalps and chelicerae of Thaumasia sp. manipulated the head of P. canadensis , which stopped moving shortly after being captured, probably because of the action of the spider's venom. The study records a wasp in the diet of Thaumasia based on the ca...

We have two of them: A review of the genus Mastigusa (Araneae: Cybaeidae) in Bulgaria

Posted by

 


We have two of them: A review of the genus Mastigusa (Araneae: Cybaeidae) in Bulgaria

Abstract

In the present study, we review the status of the genus Mastigusa Menge, 1854 in Bulgaria. We identified two species from the country, namely M. arietina (Thorell, 1871) and M. macrophthalma (Kulczyński, 1897). This is the first record of M. arietina from Bulgaria. Furthermore, we report a male palpal polymorphism in M. arietina in the populations around the Black Sea. We also provide molecular support for our conclusions, combining newly generated DNA sequences with information available in GenBank.

Indzhov, S., Haynadzhieva, V., Střeštík, V., Dimitrov, D. & Dimitrov, D. (2025) We have two of them: A review of the genus Mastigusa (Araneae: Cybaeidae) in Bulgaria. Zootaxa, 5711 (4), 579–588. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5711.4.7