''Gasteracantha flava'' is a species of spider described in 1849 from Chile. The spider's abdomen bears 14 spines (six on each side and two in the rear) and is yellow in color with brown or black sigilla and a strongly wrinkled ventral side. The World Spider Catalog currently treats this taxon as a spiny orb-weaver spider in the genus '' Gasteracantha''. In 1849, H. Nicolet included it in the genus ''Gasteracantha'' along with 18 other species he described from Chile. Nicolet described ''G. flava'' as being closely allied to another species described at the same time, ''Gasteracantha spissa'', which had the same number and shape of spines and was very similar. Subsequent authors refined Nicolet's species, and in a 1996 publication

Herbert Levi Herbert Walter Levi (January 3, 1921 – November 3, 2014) was professor emeritus of zoology and curator of arachnology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University. He was born in Germany, educated there and at Leighton Park School, Re ...

wrote, "All Nicolet's species seem to belong in ''Phoroncidia'' ( Theridiidae)." Levi transferred the 14-spined taxon ''spissa'', described by Nicolet as very similar to ''G. flava'', to the genus ''

Phoroncidia ''Phoroncidia'' is a genus of comb-footed spiders that was first described by J. O. Westwood in 1835. Species it contains seventy-nine species and one subspecies, found worldwide: *'' P. aciculata'' Thorell, 1877 – Indonesia (Sulawesi) *'' P ...

'', creating the new combination Phoroncidia spissa. However, Levi did not explicitly address ''G. flava'', so it remains in ''Gasteracantha'' as of November 2019, though its purported sister species now belongs to ''Phoroncidia'' and no other ''Gasteracantha'' species has more than six spines.

References

{{Taxonbar, from= Q940508 Spiders described in 1849 flava Endemic fauna of Chile

See also

References