Rhomphaea

Rhomphaea
female R. nasica
male R. tanikawai
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Infraorder: Araneomorphae
Family: Theridiidae
Genus: Rhomphaea
L. Koch, 1872[1]
Type species
R. cometes
L. Koch, 1872
Species

39, see text

Rhomphaea is a genus of comb-footed spiders that was first described by Ludwig Carl Christian Koch in 1872.[2]

Distribution

Spiders in this genus are found worldwide.[1]

Life style

Rhomphaea species are elusive solitary spiders. They capture other spiders that wander onto their webs and also venture onto other spiders' webs to capture the residents. These spiders employ aggressive mimicry to lure victims and throw a sticky triangular net over their prey.[3]

Description

See also: Glossary of spider terms

Rhomphaea spiders measure 4 to 5 mm in total length, with general coloration mostly light brown with many lighter spots.[3]

The carapace features a slanting clypeus that projects anteriorly in both sexes, with stridulatory ridges and a longitudinal dark band. The carapace usually has a projection of the eye region in males. The abdomen is elongated, triangular, or cylindrical. In females, the abdomen tapers to a single tip and is usually four to six times as long behind the spinnerets as in front of them.[3]

The legs are thin and long, with the first patella and tibia measuring three to four times the carapace length.[3]

Taxonomy

The genus is very close to Ariamnes.[3]

Species

  • R. urquharti
  • R. fictilium
  • male R. labiata
  • R. projiciens

As of October 2025, this genus includes 39 species:[1]

  • Rhomphaea aculeata Thorell, 1898 – Myanmar
  • Rhomphaea affinis Lessert, 1936 – Mozambique, South Africa
  • Rhomphaea altissima Mello-Leitão, 1941 – Brazil
  • Rhomphaea angulipalpis Thorell, 1877 – Indonesia (Sulawesi)
  • Rhomphaea annulipedis Yoshida & Nojima, 2010 – Japan
  • Rhomphaea barycephalus (Roberts, 1983) – Seychelles (Aldabra)
  • Rhomphaea birgitae (Strand, 1917) – Myanmar
  • Rhomphaea brasiliensis Mello-Leitão, 1920 – Venezuela, Brazil
  • Rhomphaea ceraosus (Zhu & Song, 1991) – China
  • Rhomphaea cometes L. Koch, 1872 – Indonesia (New Guinea), Samoa, French Polynesia (type species)
  • Rhomphaea cona (González & Carmen, 1996) – Argentina
  • Rhomphaea fictilium (Hentz, 1850) – Canada to Argentina
  • Rhomphaea hyrcana (Logunov & Marusik, 1990) – Georgia, Azerbaijan, China, Japan, Turkey?
  • Rhomphaea irrorata Thorell, 1898 – Myanmar
  • Rhomphaea jacko Tharmarajan & Benjamin, 2022 – Sri Lanka
  • Rhomphaea labiata (Zhu & Song, 1991) – India, China, Korea, Japan, Laos
  • Rhomphaea lactifera Simon, 1909 – Vietnam
  • Rhomphaea longicaudata O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1872 – Greece, Lebanon
  • Rhomphaea marani Tharmarajan & Benjamin, 2022 – Sri Lanka
  • Rhomphaea martini Tharmarajan & Benjamin, 2022 – Sri Lanka
  • Rhomphaea metaltissima Soares & Camargo, 1948 – Panama to Brazil
  • Rhomphaea nasica (Simon, 1873) – Canary Islands, Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Croatia, Greece, Africa, St. Helena
  • Rhomphaea oris (González & Carmen, 1996) – Argentina
  • Rhomphaea ornatissima Dyal, 1935 – Pakistan
  • Rhomphaea palmarensis (González & Carmen, 1996) – Argentina
  • Rhomphaea paradoxa (Taczanowski, 1873) – St. Vincent, Mexico to Brazil
  • Rhomphaea pignalitoensis (González & Carmen, 1996) – Argentina
  • Rhomphaea procera (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1898) – Costa Rica to Argentina
  • Rhomphaea projiciens O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1896 – USA to Argentina. Introduced to India
  • Rhomphaea recurvata (Saaristo, 1978) – Seychelles
  • Rhomphaea rostrata (Simon, 1873) – Canary Islands, Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece
  • Rhomphaea sagana (Dönitz & Strand, 1906) – Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia (Far East), China, Korea, Japan, Philippines
  • Rhomphaea shanthi Tharmarajan & Benjamin, 2022 – Sri Lanka
  • Rhomphaea sinica (Zhu & Song, 1991) – China
  • Rhomphaea sjostedti Tullgren, 1910 – Tanzania
  • Rhomphaea tanikawai Yoshida, 2001 – China, Japan
  • Rhomphaea triangula (Thorell, 1887) – Myanmar
  • Rhomphaea urquharti (Bryant, 1933) – New Zealand
  • Rhomphaea velhaensis (González & Carmen, 1996) – Brazil

In synonymy:

  • R. argenteola (Simon, 1873) = Rhomphaea nasica (Simon, 1873)
  • R. canariensis (Schmidt, 1956) = Rhomphaea rostrata (Simon, 1873)
  • R. delicatula (Simon, 1883) = Rhomphaea nasica (Simon, 1873)
  • R. feioi (Mello-Leitão, 1947) = Rhomphaea projiciens O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1896
  • R. honesta (Exline & Levi, 1962) = Rhomphaea brasiliensis Mello-Leitão, 1920
  • R. longa (Kulczyński, 1905) = Rhomphaea rostrata (Simon, 1873)
  • R. martinae (Exline, 1950) = Rhomphaea projiciens O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1896
  • R. petrunkevitchi (Mello-Leitão, 1945) = Rhomphaea paradoxa (Taczanowski, 1873)
  • R. remota (Bryant, 1940) = Rhomphaea fictilium (Hentz, 1850)
  • R. simoni (Petrunkevitch, 1911) = Rhomphaea procera (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1898)
  • R. spinicaudata (Keyserling, 1884) = Rhomphaea paradoxa (Taczanowski, 1873)
  • R. spinosa (Badcock, 1932) = Rhomphaea projiciens O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1896

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "Gen. Rhomphaea L. Koch, 1872". World Spider Catalog. doi:10.24436/2. Retrieved 2025-10-03.
  2. ^ Koch, L. (1872). Die Arachniden Australiens, nach der Natur beschrieben und abgebildet. Bauer & Raspe, Nürnberg. pp. 105–368. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.121660.
  3. ^ a b c d e Dippenaar-Schoeman, A.S.; Haddad, C.R.; Foord, S.H.; Lotz, L.N. (2021). The Theridiidae of South Africa. Part 2 [R-T]. Version 1. South African National Survey of Arachnida Photo Identification Guide. p. 3. doi:10.5281/zenodo.7515998. This article incorporates text available under the CC BY 4.0 license.

Further reading

  • Agnarsson, I. (2004). "Morphological phylogeny of cobweb spiders and their relatives (Araneae, Araneoidea, Theridiidae)". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 141 (4): 447–626.
  • Exline, H.; Levi, H. W. (1962). "American spiders of the genus Argyrodes (Araneae, Theridiidae)". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 127: 75–204.
  • Yoshida, H. (2001). "The genus Rhomphaea (Araneae: Theridiidae) from Japan, with notes on the subfamily Argyrodinae". Acta Arachnologica. 50: 183–192.
  • Song, D. X.; Zhu, M. S.; Chen, J. (1999). The spiders of China. Hebei Science and Technology Publishing House, Shijiazhuang. p. 640.
  • Zhu, M. S. (1998). Fauna Sinica: Arachnida: Araneae: Theridiidae. Science Press, Beijing. p. 436.


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