''Cteniza sauvagesi'' is a

trapdoor spider Trapdoor spider is a common name that is used to refer to various spiders from several different groups that create burrows with a silk-hinged trapdoor to help them ambush prey. Several families within the infraorder Mygalomorphae contain trapdo ...

first described in 1788 by Pietro Rossi. These spiders have only been found in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

region, mainly on the large islands of Corsica and

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...

on roadside banks and in the

littoral zone The littoral zone or nearshore is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore. In coastal ecology, the littoral zone includes the intertidal zone extending from the high water mark (which is rarely inundated), to coastal a ...

. They are darkly colored with a shiny head and can reach in length. Their trap-door burrows are lined with gossamer, more so than those of ''

Nemesiidae Nemesiidae, also known as funnel-web trapdoor spiders, is a family of mygalomorph spiders first described by Eugène Simon in 1889, and raised to family status in 1985. Before becoming its own family, it was considered part of "Dipluridae". Desc ...

''. The trap's lid is cork-like and can be up to a centimeter in diameter. When the spider notices prey (probably by detecting vibration), it lunges out, to grab it before immediately retreating. The spider always stays inside its burrow with its hindlegs, in order not to lock itself out. The only time it leaves is to search for a mate. When the male finds a female's burrow, he will quaver on the lid with his legs until the female appears.

Taxonomy

The species was first described by Rossi in 1788 as ''Aranea sauvagii''. In 1799, Latreille changed Rossi's spelling of the specific name to ''sauvagesi'', and this spelling has been used since.

References

External links

Spiders of Corsica: ''Cteniza sauvagesi''
(in French) Ctenizidae Spiders of Europe Spiders described in 1788 Taxa named by Pietro Rossi {{Mygalomorphae-stub