Platythomisus

Platythomisus is a genus of flattened crab spiders (family Thomisidae) from Africa and Southern Asia.

Platythomisus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Infraorder: Araneomorphae
Family: Thomisidae
Genus: Platythomisus
Doleschall, 1859
Type species
Thomisus 8-maculatus
Species

See text

Diversity
14 species

All species are only known from females or juveniles, with the exception of P. jucundus, where only the male is known.[1]

Description

Females reach a body length of about 20 mm, males grow up to four mm. The smooth, convex cephalothorax is quite large, with smooth, slender legs that are not particularly long. The legs are often free of spines, with the occasional exception on the first two pairs. The opisthosoma is stout and oval.[2]

Platythomisus octomaculatus has a yellow-orange color with four round, black marks on the cephalothorax and seven large black marks on the opisthosoma, with one spot near the cephalothorax, and the other six following behind in two longitudinal rows.[2] The legs are of a bright yellow, with the outer halves black.

Biology

Platythomisus octomaculatus is a rather rare species. One of the plants it has been found on is the yellow Hibiscus tiliaceus. In captivity it was observed to feed on bees.[3]

Name

The genus name is combined from Ancient Greek platys "flat" and the name of the crab spider genus Thomisus.

Species
  • Platythomisus bazarus Tikader, 1970 — India
  • Platythomisus deserticola Lawrence, 1936 — Southern Africa
  • Platythomisus heraldicus Karsch, 1878 — East Africa, Zanzibar
  • Platythomisus insignis Pocock, 1899 — Equatorial Guinea, Congo
  • Platythomisus jubbi Lawrence, 1968 — South Africa
  • Platythomisus jucundus Thorell, 1894 — Java
  • Platythomisus nigriceps Pocock, 1899 — Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast
  • Platythomisus octomaculatus (C. L. Koch, 1845) — Sumatra, Java
  • Platythomisus pantherinus Pocock, 1898 — Malawi
  • Platythomisus quadrimaculatus Hasselt, 1882 — Sumatra
  • Platythomisus scytodimorphus (Karsch, 1886) — East Africa
  • Platythomisus sexmaculatus Simon, 1897 — Somalia
  • Platythomisus sibayius Lawrence, 1968 — South Africa
  • Platythomisus sudeepi Biswas, 1977 — India

Footnotes
  1. Platnick 2008
  2. Murphy & Murphy 2000
  3. Schlangenforum.ch

References
  • Murphy, Frances & Murphy, John (2000): An Introduction to the Spiders of South East Asia. Malaysian Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur.
  • Platnick, Norman I. (2009): The world spider catalog, version 10.0. American Museum of Natural History.


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