Viridasius is a monotypic genus of East African araneomorph spiders in the family Viridasiidae, containing the single species, Viridasius fasciatus. It was first described by Eugène Simon in 1889,[2] and has only been found in Madagascar.[1]
| Viridasius | |
|---|---|
| |
| Zebra Spider (V. fasciatus) | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae |
| Infraorder: | Araneomorphae |
| Family: | Viridasiidae |
| Genus: | Viridasius Simon, 1889[1] |
| Species: | V. fasciatus
|
| Binomial name | |
| Viridasius fasciatus (Lenz, 1886)
| |
| Synonyms[1] | |
| |
Description edit
These spiders have a white carapace with black spots, and long black and white striped legs. Females can grow up to 2 to 2.5 centimetres (0.79 to 0.98 in) long, but the males are generally smaller.[3]
Taxonomy edit
The male and female holotypes were originally identified as Phoneutria fasciata when they were first described by Lenz in 1886.[4] In 1889, Eugène Simon described and identified a male as P. pulchripes, placing it in the new genus Viridasius in the Ctenidae.[2] In the same work, Simon described the genus Vulsor, which he would later merge with this one. He renamed the single species Vulsor fasciatus, retaining the species name Lenz gave in the original description.[5] In 1967, Pekka T. Lehtinen reorganized the Araneomorphae, re-separating Viridasius from Vulsor.[6] In 2015, the genus was moved from the Ctenidae to the newly created Viridasiidae[7]
References edit
- ^ a b c "Gen. Viridasius Simon, 1889". World Spider Catalog Version 20.0. Natural History Museum Bern. 2019. doi:10.24436/2. Retrieved 2019-05-25.
- ^ a b Simon, E. (1889). "Etudes arachnologiques. 21e Mémoire. XXXI. Descriptions d'espèces et the genres nouveaux de Madagascar et de Mayotte". Annales de la Société Entomologique de France. 6 (8): 233.
- ^ "Viridasius fasciatus (Lenz, 1886)" (in Polish). Arachnea.org. Retrieved 2016-02-18.
- ^ Lenz, H. (1886). "Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Spinnenfauna Madagascars". Zoologische Jahrbücher, Zeitschrift für Systematik, Geographie und Biologie der Thiere. 1 (2): 404.
- ^ Simon, E (1897). Histoire naturelle des araignées. p. 127. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.51973.
- ^ Lehtinen, P. T. (1967). "Classification of the cribellate spiders and some allied families, with notes on the evolution of the suborder Araneomorpha". Annales Zoologici Fennici. 4: 274.
- ^ Polotow, D.; Carmichael, A.; Griswold, C.E. (2015). "Total evidence analysis of the phylogenetic relationships of Lycosoidea spiders(Araneae, Entelegynae)". Invertebrate Systematics. 29 (2): 152. doi:10.1071/IS14041. S2CID 54940773.