''Melecosa'' is a genus of spiders in the family

Lycosidae Wolf spiders are members of the family Lycosidae (). They are robust and agile hunters with excellent eyesight. They live mostly in solitude, hunt alone, and do not spin webs. Some are opportunistic hunters, pouncing upon prey as they find it or ...

. Its lone species is found in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and China. The species was first described in 2004 by Marusik, Azarkina, and Koponen as ''

Sibirocosa ''Sibirocosa'' is a genus of wolf spiders containing seven species, all from Russia, mostly found from northeastern Siberia south to Primorsky Krai. Spiders of this genus are dark coloured and hairy with a body length of 5.25 - 7.25 mm. Sp ...

alpina'', then transferred into its own genus in 2015. This spider has a body length of up to 5.75 mm and has shorter legs than other ''Sibirocosa'' species. It is distinctively marked: the front of the

cephalothorax The cephalothorax, also called prosoma in some groups, is a tagma of various arthropods, comprising the head and the thorax fused together, as distinct from the abdomen behind. (The terms ''prosoma'' and ''opisthosoma'' are equivalent to ''cepha ...

(where the eyes are located) is black with two longitudinal brown stripes; 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 ...

is brown with paler stripes; the

abdomen The abdomen (colloquially called the belly, tummy, midriff, tucky or stomach) is the part of the body between the thorax (chest) and pelvis, in humans and in other vertebrates. The abdomen is the front part of the abdominal segment of the torso. ...

is blackish with a broad brown stripe down the middle. The

legs A leg is a weight-bearing and locomotive anatomical structure, usually having a columnar shape. During locomotion, legs function as "extensible struts". The combination of movements at all joints can be modeled as a single, linear element ...

have pale rings and differ from other ''Sibirocosa'' species by having a smaller number (3 vs. 4) of

ventral Standard anatomical terms of location are used to unambiguously describe the anatomy of animals, including humans. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek language, Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. Th ...

tibial spines.

References

Lycosidae Monotypic Araneomorphae genera Spiders of Asia {{Lycosidae-stub