''Cladomelea debeeri'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

spider Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...

in the

orb-weaver spider Orb-weaver spiders are members of the spider family Araneidae. They are the most common group of builders of spiral wheel-shaped webs often found in gardens, fields, and forests. The English word "orb" can mean "circular", hence the English name ...

family Araneidae, found in South Africa. It was first described in 2004. ''Cladomelea'' species, including ''C. debeeri'', are "

bolas spider A bolas spider is a member of the orb-weaver spider (family Araneidae) that, instead of spinning a typical orb web, hunts by using one or more sticky "capture blobs" on the end of a silk line, known as a "bolas". By swinging the bolas at flying ...

s" – adult females capture their prey by using one or more sticky drops on the end of a line which they swing, usually catching male moths attracted by the release of an analogue of the attractant

sex pheromone Sex pheromones are pheromones released by an organism to attract an individual of the same species, encourage them to mate with them, or perform some other function closely related with sexual reproduction. Sex pheromones specifically focus on ind ...

produced by the female moth. Juvenile and adult male bolas spiders do not use a bolas, catching prey with their legs alone.

Description

The first described female had a total length of 15.8 mm, with a carapace length of 3.8 mm and an abdomen length of 12.6 mm – the abdomen partly covered the

carapace A carapace is a Dorsum (biology), dorsal (upper) section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods, such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates, such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tor ...

. The carapace was slightly wider than long, with a maximum width of 3.9 mm. The carapace was yellowish brown with a complex dark brown pattern and covered with long white wool-like

setae In biology, setae (singular seta ; from the Latin word for "bristle") are any of a number of different bristle- or hair-like structures on living organisms. Animal setae Protostomes Annelid setae are stiff bristles present on the body. Th ...

. The head region had four tubercules: a short one at the front, then a longer one, and then a pair of shorter ones. The eyes were arranged in two slightly recurved rows. The

sternum The sternum or breastbone is a long flat bone located in the central part of the chest. It connects to the ribs via cartilage and forms the front of the rib cage, thus helping to protect the heart, lungs, and major blood vessels from injury. Sh ...

was cream coloured. The abdomen was creamish yellow, shaped like a backward pointing triangle with five tubercules at each front corner and six at the back. Each tubercule had a darker tip and a tuft of long white setae. The first leg was longest, 14.7 mmm. The spider's legs were creamish white with dark spiral-shaped bands on the

femora The femur (; ), or thigh bone, is the proximal bone of the hindlimb in tetrapod vertebrates. The head of the femur articulates with the acetabulum in the pelvic bone forming the hip joint, while the distal part of the femur articulates with t ...

, patellae and

tibiae The tibia (; ), also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior (frontal) of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates (the other being the fibula, behind and to the outside of the tibia); it connects ...

and longitudinal bands on the metatarsi. The

epigyne The epigyne or epigynum is the external genital structure of female spiders. As the epigyne varies greatly in form in different species, even in closely related ones, it often provides the most distinctive characteristic for recognizing species. ...

had no scape, only a small rounded lip. The male was unknown.

Taxonomy

''Cladomelea debeeri'' was first described by John Roff and Ansie Dippenaar-Schoeman in 2004. ''Cladomelea'' species are

s, and although the genus was not included in two relevant

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

studies in 2014 and 2020, would be expected to be part of the "mastophorines", placed in the subfamily

Cyrtarachninae Cyrtarachninae is a subfamily of spiders in the family Araneidae (orb-weaver spiders, araneids). The group has been circumscribed in several different ways. It originated as the group Cyrtarachneae, described by Eugène Simon in 1892. The group wa ...

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Bolas construction and use

A female was observed over four successive nights. It constructed its bolas in early evening. This was made up of two or three increasingly shorter silk threads each ending in a sticky droplet about 2–3 mm in diameter. When the threads were put together, the result was one compound thread with two or three droplets. (This differs from the bolas of the other South African bolas spider, ''C. akermani'', which uses only a single thread with one or two droplets.) The bolas was whirled with the second pair of legs. A new bolas was constructed every 2–3 hours. The spider was observed to catch a moth only on the first night.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q1950467 Endemic fauna of South Africa Araneidae Spiders of South Africa Spiders described in 2004