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Gasteracantha Audouini
''Gasteracantha'' is a genus of orb-weaver spiders first named by Carl Jakob Sundevall in 1833. Species of the genus are known as spiny-backed orb-weavers, spiny orb-weavers, or spiny spiders. The females of most species are brightly colored with six prominent spines on their broad, hardened, shell-like abdomens. The name ''Gasteracantha'' is derived from the Greek (), meaning "belly, abdomen", and (), meaning "thorn, spine". Spiny-backed orb-weavers are sometimes colloquially called "crab spiders" because of their shape, but they are not closely related to the true crab spiders. Other colloquial names for certain species include thorn spider, star spider, kite spider, or jewel spider. Members of the genus exhibit strong sexual dimorphism. Females are several times larger than males, which lack prominent spines or bright colors. ''Gasteracantha'' species are distributed worldwide in tropical and subtropical climates. The genus is most diverse in tropical Asia, from India ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carl Jakob Sundevall
Carl Jakob Sundevall (22 October 1801, Högestad – 2 February 1875) was a Swedish zoologist. Sundevall studied at Lund University, where he became a Ph.D. in 1823. After traveling to East Asia, he studied medicine, graduating as Doctor of Medicine in 1830. He was employed at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm from 1833, and was professor and keeper of the vertebrate section from 1839 to 1871. He wrote ''Svenska Foglarna'' (1856–87) which described 238 species of birds observed in Sweden. He classified a number of birds collected in southern Africa by Johan August Wahlberg. In 1835, he developed a phylogeny for the birds based on the muscles of the hip and leg that contributed to later work by Thomas Huxley. He then went on to examine the arrangement of the deep plantar tendons in the bird's foot. This latter information is still used by avian taxonomists. Sundevall was also an entomologist and arachnologist, for which (for the latter field) in 1833 he publish ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |