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Seothyra
EntityQ1883199· pop 13· linked from 11 articles

Also known as Buck spoor spiders

Seothyra, commonly known as the buckspoor spiders, buck spoor spiders or just spoor spiders, belong to a sand-dwelling, burrowing genus of araneomorph spiders in the family Eresidae. The 13 species are endemic to the arid, sandy flats and semistabilized red dunes of southern Africa. They are sexually dimorphic. The tiny males, which are seldom seen, imitate sugar ants or velvet ants in their appearance and habits, while the females hide in and hunt from their characteristic burrows. They are thermophilous, with males as well as females being most active on hot days.

Species

GENUS

  1. KingdomAnimalia
  2. PhylumArthropoda
  3. ClassArachnida
  4. OrderAraneae
  5. FamilyEresidae
Observations recorded105

via GBIF

Museum specimens

Specimen records
39
Family
Eresidae
Collections
MCZ, ARC-PPRI
Recorded in
Namibia, South Africa

Wikidata facts

Instance of
taxon
Parent taxon
Eresidae
Image
Seothyra sp, valdeur, Steenbokpan, a.jpg
Show 4 more facts
taxon name
Seothyra
taxon rank
genus
topic's main category
Category:Seothyra
Commons category
Seothyra
Sources (1)

via Wikidata · CC0

~7 min read

Encyclopedic overview

8 sections
Contents
  • Range and density
  • Female's burrow and web
  • Female behaviour
  • Breeding and young
  • Longevity and mortality
  • Anatomy and relationships
  • Species
  • References

Seothyra, commonly known as the buckspoor spiders, buck spoor spiders or just spoor spiders, belong to a sand-dwelling, burrowing genus of araneomorph spiders in the family Eresidae. The 13 species are endemic to the arid, sandy flats and semistabilized red dunes of southern Africa. They are sexually dimorphic. The tiny males, which are seldom seen, imitate sugar ants or velvet ants in their appearance and habits, while the females hide in and hunt from their characteristic burrows. They are thermophilous, with males as well as females being most active on hot days.

==Range and density== They occur in Namibia, Botswana and South Africa. In South Africa they are present in northern Limpopo, and the Northern Cape as far south as the Tankwa Karoo. Their distribution is patchy, but when forming conspecific aggregations, their webs may even touch one another. Such clusters may contain thousands of females, with a density of 50 m−2, or locally, 100 to 200 m−2.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Seothyra” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.