''Stanwellia taranga'' is a species of
Mygalomorph spider endemic to
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
.
Taxonomy
This species was described as ''Aparua taranga'' in 1968 by
Ray Forster
Raymond Robert Forster (19 June 1922 – 1 July 2000) was a New Zealand arachnologist and museum director. He was a Fellow of the Entomological Society of New Zealand.
Biography
Forster was born in Hastings, New Zealand in 1922, and was educat ...
from a single female specimen collected in
Hen Island.
It was transferred into the ''
Stanwellia
''Stanwellia'' is a genus of South Pacific mygalomorph spiders in the family Pycnothelidae. It was first described by W. J. Rainbow & R. H. Pulleine in 1918. Originally placed with the curtain-web spiders, it was transferred to the funnel-web t ...
'' genus in 1983. The holotype is stored in
Auckland War Memorial Museum under registration number AMNZ5047.
Description
The female is recorded at 14.5mm in length. The carapace and legs are orange to yellow brown. The abdomen is cream with a mottled pattern.
Distribution
This species is only known from
Hen Island, New Zealand.
Conservation status
Under the
New Zealand Threat Classification System
The New Zealand Threat Classification System is used by the Department of Conservation to assess conservation priorities of species in New Zealand.
The system was developed because the IUCN Red List, a similar conservation status system, had some ...
, this species is listed as "Naturally Uncommon" with the qualifiers of "Island Endemic" and "One Location".
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2406109
Spiders of New Zealand
Spiders described in 1968
taranga