Mimetus

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: Mimetoidea

Familia: Mimetidae
Subfamilia: Mimetinae
Genus: Mimetus
Species: M. aktius – M. arushae – M. audax – M. aurioculatus – M. banksi – M. bifurcatus – M. bigibbosus – M. bishopi – M. brasilianus – M. bucerus – M. catulli – M. caudatus – M. comorensis – M. contrarius – M. cornutus – M. crudelis – M. debilispinis – M. dimissus – M. echinatus – M. epeiroides – M. fernandi – M. hannemanni – M. haynesi – M. hesperus – M. hieroglyphicus – M. hirsutus – M. hispaniolae – M. indicus – M. insidiator – M. japonicus – M. juhuaensis – M. keyserlingi – M. labiatus – M. laevigatus – M. lamellaris – M. lamelliformis – M. latro – M. lingbaoshanensis – M. madecassus – M. margaritifer – M. marjorieae – M. melanoleucus – M. mendicus – M. monticola – M. natalensis – M. nelsoni – M. notius – M. penicillatus – M. portoricensis – M. puritanus – M. rapax – M. ridens – M. rusticus – M. ryukyus – M. saetosus – M. sennio – M. sinicus – M. strinatii – M. syllepsicus – M. syllepsicus – M. testaceus – M. tikaderi – M. tillandsiae – M. triangularis – M. trituberculatus – M. tuberculatus – M. variegatus – M. verecundus – M. vespillo – M. wangi – M. yinae
Name

Mimetus Hentz, 1832

Type species: Mimetus syllepsicus Hentz, 1832
References

Emerit, M. 1990a. Contribution à l'étude des aranéides de Madagascar et des Comores: I. La famille des Mimetidae. Revue Arachnologique 11: 95-108. Reference page.
Gan, J-H., Mi, X.Q., Irfan, M., Peng, X.J., Ran, S. & Zhan, Y. 2019. Three new species of the genus Mimetus Hentz, 1832 (Araneae: Mimetidae) from Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau of China. European Journal of Taxonomy. 525: 1-13. DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2019.525 Open access Reference page.
Platnick, N. I. 2008. The World Spider Catalog, version 9.0. American Museum of Natural History. [1]
Wang, J.F. 1990a. Study on the spiders of family Mimetidae from south China (Arachnida: Araneae). Acta Zootaxonomica Sinica 15: 36-47. Reference page.
Zeng, C., Wang, C. & Peng, X-J. 2016. Three spider species of the genus Mimetus Hentz, 1832 (Araneae, Mimetidae) from China. ZooKeys 626: 125-135. DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.626.7918. Reference page.

Vernacular names
English: Mimetus

Mimetus is a genus of pirate spiders in the family Mimetidae.[1] They are found worldwide.
Description

Members of this genus resemble the comb-footed spiders, Theridiidae, due to their globular abdomen. The upper side of this bears curved bristle-like hairs. A distinguishing mark of the genus is that the distance between the anterior edge of the carapace and the anterior medial eyes is about one-third to one-half of the distance between the anterior and posterior medial eyes. The length of the anterior legs is about 1.5-1.7 times that of the posterior pair.[2]
Behaviour

Spiders in this genus are specialised spider killers. They spin no web but are slow moving, stalking or ambushing their prey. They sometimes invade the web of their potential victim, vibrating the silk to mislead the owner. An individual will attack a potential victim by biting one of its legs and injecting toxins. It then retreats and the prey spider quickly becomes paralysed. The attacker then advances and starts to feed, sucking out the body fluids of its victim.[2][3]
Species

The World Spider Catalog lists these species:[1]

Mimetus aktius Chamberlin & Ivie, 1935 — USA
Mimetus arushae Caporiacco, 1947 — Tanzania
Mimetus banksi Chickering, 1947 — Panama
Mimetus bifurcatus Reimoser, 1939 — Costa Rica
Mimetus bigibbosus O. P.-Cambridge, 1894 — Mexico, Panama
Mimetus bishopi Caporiacco, 1949 — Kenya
Mimetus brasilianus Keyserling, 1886 — Brazil
Mimetus caudatus Wang, 1990 — China
Mimetus comorensis Schmidt & Krause, 1994 — Comoro Islands
Mimetus cornutus Lawrence, 1947 — South Africa
Mimetus crudelis O. P.-Cambridge, 1899 — Guatemala
Mimetus debilispinis Mello-Leitão, 1943 — Brazil
Mimetus dimissus Petrunkevitch, 1930 — Puerto Rico, Antigua
Mimetus echinatus Wang, 1990 — China
Mimetus epeiroides Emerton, 1882 — USA
Mimetus fernandi Lessert, 1930 — Congo
Mimetus haynesi Gertsch & Mulaik, 1940 — USA
Mimetus hesperus Chamberlin, 1923 — USA
Mimetus hieroglyphicus Mello-Leitão, 1929 — Brazil, Paraguay
Mimetus hirsutus O. P.-Cambridge, 1899 — Mexico
Mimetus hispaniolae Bryant, 1948 — Hispaniola
Mimetus indicus Simon, 1906 — India
Mimetus insidiator Thorell, 1899 — West Africa, São Tomé, Canary Islands
Mimetus keyserlingi Mello-Leitão, 1929 — Peru, Brazil
Mimetus labiatus Wang, 1990 — China
Mimetus laevigatus (Keyserling, 1863) — Mediterranean to Central Asia
Mimetus madacassus Emerit, 1996 — Madagascar
Mimetus margaritifer Simon, 1901 — Malaysia
Mimetus marjorieae Barrion & Litsinger, 1995 — Philippines
Mimetus melanoleucus Mello-Leitão, 1929 — Brazil
Mimetus monticola (Blackwall, 1870) — Sicily, Syria, Egypt
Mimetus natalensis Lawrence, 1938 — South Africa
Mimetus nelsoni Archer, 1950 — USA
Mimetus notius Chamberlin, 1923 — USA
Mimetus penicillatus Mello-Leitão, 1929 — Brazil
Mimetus portoricensis Petrunkevitch, 1930 — Puerto Rico
Mimetus puritanus Chamberlin, 1923 — USA
Mimetus rapax O. P.-Cambridge, 1899 — Costa Rica, Panama
Mimetus ridens Brignoli, 1975 — Philippines
Mimetus rusticus Chickering, 1947 — Panama
Mimetus ryukyus Yoshida, 1993 — Taiwan, Ryukyu Islands
Mimetus saetosus Chickering, 1956 — Panama
Mimetus sinicus Song & Zhu, 1993 — China
Mimetus strinatii Brignoli, 1972 — Sri Lanka
Mimetus syllepsicus Hentz, 1832 — USA, Mexico
Mimetus syllepsicus molestus Chickering, 1937 — Mexico
Mimetus testaceus Yaginuma, 1960 — China, Korea, Japan
Mimetus tillandsiae Archer, 1941 — USA
Mimetus triangularis (Keyserling, 1879) — Peru, Brazil
Mimetus trituberculatus O. P.-Cambridge, 1899 — Panama
Mimetus tuberculatus Liang & Wang, 1991 — China
Mimetus variegatus Chickering, 1956 — Panama
Mimetus verecundus Chickering, 1947 — Panama
Mimetus vespillo Brignoli, 1980 — Sulawesi

References

"Gen. Mimetus Hentz, 1832", World Spider Catalog, Natural History Museum Bern, retrieved 2021-01-07
Spiders of Europe and Greenland
Spider enemies