Ligurian house spider

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Ligurian house spider
Ligurian house spider (Micrommata ligurina), female

Ligurian house spider ( Micrommata ligurina ), female

Systematics
Subordination : Real spiders (Araneomorphae)
Partial order : Entelegynae
Superfamily : Sparassoidea
Family : Giant crab spiders (Sparassidae)
Genre : Hoof spiders ( Micrommata )
Type : Ligurian house spider
Scientific name
Micrommata ligurina
( CL Koch , 1845),

The Ligurian house spider ( Micrommata ligurina ) is a spider from the family of giant crab spiders (Sparassidae). Contrary to what its common German name suggests, the species is widespread far beyond Liguria in many parts of the Mediterranean and as far as Central Asia.

features

male

The female of the Ligurian house spider reaches a body length of nine to fourteen and the male one of six to nine millimeters. The physique corresponds to that of other hush spiders ( Micrommata ). Both sexes are provided with a medial stripe running from the prosoma (front body) over the opisthosoma (abdomen), which contains two black bars at the rear end. The Ligurian Huschspine also has indistinct dark side bands.

The female and occasionally the male have an emerald green prosoma and equally colored legs, although the male may also have a brown colored prosoma. The edge of the fovea (folding in of the chitin skeleton in the prosoma) is occupied by a group of deep brown setae (hairs or bristles) in the male . The male's bulbi (sexual organs), which are located on the pedipalps , are black in color and have jagged edges along the outer fold and teeth on the edges of the inner arch. The female has a black point on the fovea. The eyes are in two rows, each containing four eyes. Like all giant crab spiders, the Ligurian hoof spider also has legs with twisted coxae so that they point forward when at rest. The back of the tibia of the fourth pair of legs are each provided with two black spines.

The female has a green opisthosoma. Its medial stripe appears indistinct and blackish. In addition, the female has a heart mark on the opisthosoma, outlined by dark lines. The epigyne (female sex organ) has a median wedge-shaped groove that ends at the center of the epigyne plate with a wedge-shaped tip. At the epigastric furrow of the Egipyne there is a gap that is delimited by almost straight upper edges. The male's opisthosoma is yellowish and narrow; its median band is dark rust-brown and is flanked by gray sides.

Similar species

Female of the closely related green house spider ( Micrommata virescens )

The Ligurian house spider is particularly similar to the green house spider ( M. virescens ), which also belongs to the genus of the house spiders ( Micrommata ) and has a similar color. However, the green hoof spider is slightly larger. Further differences are the median band that extends to the end of the opisthosoma (especially the dark rusty brown and gray-flanked male band) and the lateral bands and the spiked tibia of the fourth pair of legs of the Ligurian cooing spider, which the green cooing spider lacks.

Occurrence

Female in the Ligurian city ​​of Genoa

The distribution area of ​​the Ligurian Hush spider extends in the Mediterranean area over the Mediterranean parts of North Africa ( Tunisia to Morocco ) and many coastal areas and islands of the Mediterranean from Europe via Turkey to Central Asia . It is also found in areas west of the Black Sea ( Bulgaria and Romania ). The species was introduced in Great Britain. Areas with herbaceous vegetation are preferred as habitats .

Threat and protection

No information is available about a possible threat to the population of the Ligurian Husch spider. The species is not rated by the IUCN .

Way of life

The Ligurian hoof spider, like other hoof spiders, is primarily diurnal and, like all giant crab spiders, hunts freely without a safety net. In this case also the principle of hunting Ligurian virescens corresponds to a Lauer hunter .

Reproduction and Phenology

Young male

As with other giant crab spiders, the female Ligurian hoof spider carries her egg cocoon under her, from which the young hatch after about four to five weeks and these grow up over several moults. Adult animals can be found from late winter to spring.

Toxicity and bite accidents

The Ligurian hoof spider can penetrate the human skin with its chelicerae , but only does so if it is provoked to do so. The bite does not usually cause any medically relevant symptoms. There is usually redness, swelling and pain in the area of ​​the bite site.

Systematics

Carl Ludwig Koch , who first described it , gave the species the name Sparassus ligurinus in 1845 . Eugène Simon described the species again in 1870 as Sparassus pilosus , but four years later placed the Ligurian Huschspider as Micrommata ligurina in the genus Micrommata (Huschspinnen), where it has remained almost continuously since then.

gallery

  • Dorsal view of a female

  • Frontal view of a female

  • Lateral view of a female

  • Rear view of a female

  • Detail of the prosoma of a female

  • Females in the vegetation

  • Juvenile male in the vegetation

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Micrommata ligurina and other European giant crab spiders (CL Koch, 1845) on the website of "The Spiders of Europe and Greenland" , accessed on February 10, 2020.
  2. ↑ a b Micrommata ligurina (CL Koch, 1845) on the website of "ecotourismus.de" , accessed on February 10, 2020.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Micrommata ligurina (CL Koch, 1845) at araneae Spiders of Europe, by Wolfgang Nentwig, Theo Blick, Robert Bosmans, Daniel Gloor, Ambros Hänggi & Christian Kropf , accessed on February 10, 2020.
  4. ↑ Micrommata ligurina (CL Koch, 1845) on the website of "www.dipode-vie.net" (French) , accessed on February 10, 2020.
  5. ↑ a b c d e The genus Micrommata including M. virescens (CL Koch, 1845) on the website of "SpiderIdentifications" , accessed on February 10, 2020.
  6. ↑ Micrommata ligurina (CL Koch, 1845) at Global Biodiversity Information Facility , accessed on February 10, 2020.
  7. ↑ Peter Jäger: First results of a taxonomic revision of the SE Asian Sparassidae (Araneae) , Proceedings of the 17th European Colloquium of Arachnology, Edinburgh 1997., 1998, pp. 54-59.
  8. ↑ Micrommata ligurina (CL Koch, 1845) in the WSC World Spider Catalog , accessed on February 10 2020th

literature

Web links

Commons : Ligurian house spider  - Collection of images, videos and audio files