(c) macrobrice, all rights reserved, uploaded by macrobrice
Micrathena
Sign in to saveMicrathena, known as spiny orbweavers, is a genus of orb-weaver spiders first described by Carl Jakob Sundevall in 1833. Micrathena contains more than a hundred species, most of them Neotropical woodland-dwelling species. The name is derived from the Greek "micro", meaning "small", and the goddess Athena.
Species
Spined Micrathena
GENUS
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumArthropoda
- ClassArachnida
- OrderAraneae
- FamilyAraneidae
via GBIF
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 182
- With media
- 1
- Family
- Araneidae
- Collections
- INDRE-SSA, UTEP, MCZ, UNM, LACM, DMNS
- Recorded in
- Mexico, United States, Colombia, Nicaragua, Peru, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Brazil
Wikidata facts
Show 6 more facts
- Commons category
- Micrathena
- taxon name
- Micrathena
- taxon rank
- genus
- topic's main category
- Category:Micrathena
- Commons gallery
- Micrathena
- taxonomic type
- Micrathena clypeata
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
3 sectionsContents
- Species
- In North America
- References
Micrathena, known as spiny orbweavers, is a genus of orb-weaver spiders first described by Carl Jakob Sundevall in 1833. Micrathena contains more than a hundred species, most of them Neotropical woodland-dwelling species. The name is derived from the Greek "micro", meaning "small", and the goddess Athena.
Species with extremely long spines evolved at least eight times in the genus Micrathena and likely function as anti-predator defenses. Gasteracantha orb-weavers also have hardened abdomens with variously shaped spines, but they are not closely related to Micrathena within the orb-weaver family.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Micrathena” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
Gallery (6)
Available in 12 languages
via Wikidata sitelinks · CC0