''Gasteracantha recurva'' is a species of spiny
orb-weaver spider in the genus ''
Gasteracantha''. It was described from
Manila, Philippines
Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populated ...
in 1877.
Description
''Gasteracantha recurva'' was described and illustrated by French naturalist
Eugène Simon
Eugène Louis Simon (; 30 April 1848 – 17 November 1924) was a French naturalist who worked particularly on insects and spiders, but also on birds and plants. He is by far the most prolific spider taxonomist in history, describing over 4, ...
from a specimen he said was found in Manila by G. A. Baer. Simon wrote that the specimen had an abdomen measuring 8.5 millimeters wide by 5 millimeters long, with two pairs of spines on the sides. The anterior pair was very small and acutely pointed. The second pair was described as nearly five times longer than the first (or 4.2 mm long) and quite robust, jutting out from the abdomen for two-thirds of the spines' length and then curving backward in the last third. These spines bore about ten small tubercles at the point at which they curved backward. The specimen did not bear any spines on the posterior margin of its abdomen. Simon described the upper surface of the abdomen as fawn-red with black spines and
sigilla. The ventral surface was black with reddish bands.
In 1914,
Friedrich Dahl
Karl Friedrich Theodor Dahl (June 24, 1856 in Rosenhofer Brök north of Dahme, Holstein – June 29, 1929 in Greifswald) was a German zoologist, and in particular an arachnologist.
The son of a farmer, Dahl studied at the universities of Leipzi ...
noted that the
Berlin Zoological Museum possessed a single well-preserved dry specimen of the species labeled "
Luzon
Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as ...
(
Jagor)." He described the somewhat sinuous nature of the prominent abdominal spines and the tubercles studded at the bend. He mused that the specimen might represent a deformed individual of ''
Gasteracantha hecata'' but then rejected the thought.
See also
*
List of Araneidae species
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2562548
Spiders described in 1877
recurva