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

Liphistiidae The spider family Liphistiidae, recognized by Tamerlan Thorell in 1869, comprises 8 genera and about 100 species of medium-sized spiders from Southeast Asia, China, and Japan. They are among the most basal living spiders, belonging to the subord ...

. , it contains 14 species.Yu, L., Liu, F. X., Zhang, Z. T., Li, D. Q. & Xu, X. (2021). Three new species of the segmented spider genus Qiongthela (Mesothelae, Liphistiidae) from Hainan Island, China. ZooKeys 1009: 123-138.

Taxonomy

''Qiongthela'' gets its name from "Qiong-" referring to Hainan Province,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

(where some species of this genus are found). "-thela" comes from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

"''θηλη''" meaning "nipple-like protuberance", referring to the

spinneret A spinneret is a silk-spinning organ of a spider or the larva of an insect. Some adult insects also have spinnerets, such as those borne on the forelegs of Embioptera. Spinnerets are usually on the underside of a spider's opisthosoma, and are ...

s. This "-thela" suffix is a tradition for heptatheline genera.Xu, X., Liu, F. X., Chen, J., Ono, H., Li, D. Q. & Kuntner, M. (2015a). A genus-level taxonomic review of primitively segmented spiders (Mesothelae, Liphistiidae). ZooKeys 488: 121-151.

Description

''Qiongthela'' ranges in size from 13-31mm in length (excluding the

chelicera The chelicerae () are the mouthparts of the subphylum Chelicerata, an arthropod group that includes arachnids, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders. Commonly referred to as "jaws", chelicerae may be shaped as either articulated fangs, or similarly ...

e). The male's

palp Pedipalps (commonly shortened to palps or palpi) are the second pair of appendages of chelicerates – a group of arthropods including spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders. The pedipalps are lateral to the chelicerae ("jaws") ...

has a long, blade-like conductor with a slightly hook-like apex. The tegulum has two margins and the paracymbium is spinose. Females have two paired receptacular clusters, situated on the anterior edge of the bursa copulatrix.

Biology

These primitive spiders live in burrows with trapdoors at the entrance. These trapdoors are 3.3 cm wide and 2.5 cm long for females and the males' trapdoors are 2.0-2.3 cm wide and 1.5-1.8 cm long. The hinges of the trapdoor are located at the top and the bottom protrudes slightly. The spiders prefer not to rest near the top of the burrow and will not be coaxed out by flexible grass blades, which will often coax out other genera in the family, e.g.

Liphistius ''Liphistius'' is a genus of basal trapdoor spiders in the family Liphistiidae. They are found in Japan, China, and Southeast Asia. Etymology ''Liphistius'' is from the Greek ''leipo'' (lacking) and ''stios'' (equality). Biology Female body l ...

. Egg cases of this genus contain yellow eggs and have more than one hundred individual eggs in them. They are coated in a thin layer of coagulated vulval secretion and some fine silken threads. This structure rests on a mesh of fine threads above the bottom of the inner chamber of the egg case. When medium to large-sized individuals are disturbed, they rise their bodies up off the ground whilst keeping their tarsi on the ground and spreading their

e. This behaviour is known as "tip-toeing".Schwendinger, P. J. & Ono, H. (2011). ''On two'' Heptathela ''species from southern Vietnam, with a discussion of copulatory organs and systematics of the Liphistiidae (Araneae: Mesothelae)''. ''Revue Suisse de Zoologie'' 118: 599-637.

Species

''Qiongthela'' is found only in

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

. , the

World Spider Catalog The World Spider Catalog (WSC) is an online searchable database concerned with spider taxonomy. It aims to list all accepted families, genera and species, as well as provide access to the related taxonomic literature. The WSC began as a series of ...

accepted 14 species. *'' Qiongthela australis'' (Ono, 2002) – Vietnam *'' Qiongthela baishensis'' Xu, 2015 – Hainan *'' Qiongthela baoting'' Yu, Liu, Zhang, Wang, Li & Xu, 2020 – Hainan *'' Qiongthela bawang'' Xu, Liu, Kuntner & Li, 2017 – Hainan *'' Qiongthela dongfang'' Yu, Liu, Zhang, Li & Xu, 2021 – Hainan *'' Qiongthela jianfeng'' Xu, Liu, Kuntner & Li, 2017 – Hainan *'' Qiongthela nankai'' Yu, Liu, Zhang, Li & Xu, 2021 – Hainan *'' Qiongthela nui'' (Schwendinger & Ono, 2011) – Vietnam *'' Qiongthela qiongzhong'' Yu, Liu, Zhang, Wang, Li & Xu, 2020 – Hainan *'' Qiongthela sanya'' Yu, Liu, Zhang, Wang, Li & Xu, 2020 – Hainan *'' Qiongthela wuzhi'' Xu, Liu, Kuntner & Li, 2017 – Hainan *'' Qiongthela yalin'' Yu, Liu, Zhang, Li & Xu, 2021 – Hainan *'' Qiongthela yinai'' Xu, Liu, Kuntner & Li, 2017 – Hainan *'' Qiongthela yinggezui'' Yu, Liu, Zhang, Wang, Li & Xu, 2020 – Hainan

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q20203599 Liphistiidae Mesothelae genera Spiders of Asia