Caerostris

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Protostomia
Cladus: Ecdysozoa
Cladus: Panarthropoda
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Classis: Arachnida
Ordo: Araneae
Subordo: Opisthothelae
Infraordo: Araneomorphae
Taxon: Neocribellatae
Series: Entelegynae
Superfamilia: Araneoidea

Familia: Araneidae
Subfamilia: Gasteracanthinae
Tribus: Caerostrini
Genus: Caerostris
Species: C. corticosa – C. cowani – C. darwini – C. ecclesiigera – C. extrusa – C. hirsuta – C. indica – C. mayottensis – C. mitralis – C. sexcuspidata – C. sumatrana – C. vicina
Name

Caerostris Thorell, 1868

Type species: Caerostris mitralis Vinson, 1863
Synonyms

Trichocharis Simon, 1895

References

Kuntner, M.; Agnarsson, I. 2010: Web gigantism in Darwin's bark spider, a new species from Madagascar (Araneidae: Caerostris). Journal of arachnology, 38(2): 346–356. DOI: 10.1636/B09-113.1

Links

Platnick, N. I. 2008. The World Spider Catalog, version 9.0. American Museum of Natural History. [1]

Vernacular names
English: Caerostris

Caerostris, sometimes called bark spiders,[3] is a genus of orb-weaver spiders first described by Tamerlan Thorell in 1868.[4] Most species are found in south eastern Africa and neighboring Madagascar.[1]
Taxonomy

The genus Caerostris was erected in 1868 by Tamerlan Thorell with the type species being Epeira mitralis Vinson, 1863, which Thorell transferred to Caerostris mitralis.[1][4] Up to 2009, only 11 species had been described. A further species, C. darwini, was described in 2010,[5] and six more species in 2015.[3][1] Two of the "species", C. sexcuspidata and C. sumatrana, will probably need to be divided further to produce genetically uniform species.[3]

A molecular phylogenetic study of 12 of the species of Caerostris produced the phylogenetic tree shown below, showing that the African and Madagascan species form a monophyletic group.[3]

C. sumatrana C. mitralis C. darwini C. linnaeus C. timaze C. sexcuspidata C. wallacei C. cowani C. almae C. pero C. bojani C. extrusa

African and Madagascan species

African and Madagascan species
Species

As of April 2019 it contains eighteen species:[1]

Caerostris almae Gregorič, 2015 – Madagascar
Caerostris bojani Gregorič, 2015 – Madagascar
Caerostris corticosa Pocock, 1902 – South Africa
Caerostris cowani Butler, 1882 – Madagascar
Caerostris darwini Kuntner & Agnarsson, 2010 – Madagascar
Caerostris ecclesiigera Butler, 1882 – Madagascar
Caerostris extrusa Butler, 1882 – Madagascar
Caerostris hirsuta (Simon, 1895) – Madagascar
Caerostris indica Strand, 1915 – Myanmar
Caerostris linnaeus Gregorič, 2015 – Mozambique
Caerostris mayottensis Grasshoff, 1984 – Comoros, Mayotte
Caerostris mitralis (Vinson, 1863) – Central Africa, Madagascar
Caerostris pero Gregorič, 2015 – Madagascar
Caerostris sexcuspidata (Fabricius, 1793) – Africa, Madagascar, Comoros, Seychelles (Aldabra)
Caerostris sumatrana Strand, 1915 – India to China, Borneo
Caerostris tinamaze Gregorič, 2015 – South Africa
Caerostris vicina (Blackwall, 1866) – Central, Southern Africa
Caerostris wallacei Gregorič, Blackledge, Agnarsson & Kuntner, 2015 – Madagascar

References

"Gen. Caerostris Thorell, 1868". World Spider Catalog. Natural History Museum Bern. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
Grasshoff, M. (1984). "Die Radnetzspinnen-Gattung Caerostris (Arachnida: Araneae)". Revue Zoologique Africaine. 98 (4): 725–765. OCLC 717108186. NAID 10022018721.
Gregorič, Matjaž; Blackledge, Todd A.; Agnarsson, Ingi; Kuntner, Matjaž (2015). "A molecular phylogeny of bark spiders reveals new species from Africa and Madagascar (Araneae: Araneidae: Caerostris)". Journal of Arachnology. 43 (3): 293–312. doi:10.1636/0161-8202-43.3.293. S2CID 53953991.
Thorell, T. (1868), "Araneae. Species novae minusve cognitae", in Virgin, C.A. (ed.), Kongliga Svenska Fregatten Eugenies Resa omkring Jorden (in Latin), Uppsala, pp. 1–34
Kuntner, Matjaž; Agnarsson, Ingi (2010). "Web gigantism in Darwin's bark spider, a new species from Madagascar (Araneidae: Caerostris)". The Journal of Arachnology. 38 (2): 346–356. doi:10.1636/B09-113.1. S2CID 54079094.