''Viridasius'' is a

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historical ...

araneomorph The Araneomorphae (also called the Labidognatha) are an infraorder of spiders. They are distinguishable by chelicerae (fangs) that point diagonally forward and cross in a pinching action, in contrast to the Mygalomorphae (tarantulas and their cl ...

spiders in the family

Viridasiidae This page lists all described species of the spider family Viridasiidae accepted by 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, g ...

, containing the single species, ''Viridasius fasciatus''. It was first described by

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, ...

in 1889, and has only been found in

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

Description

These spiders have a white

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 ...

with black spots, and long black and white striped legs. Females can grow up to long, but the males are generally smaller.

Taxonomy

The male and female holotypes were originally identified as ''

Phoneutria ''Phoneutria'' is a genus of spiders in the family Ctenidae. Phoneutria venom is potentially medically significant to humans. They are mainly found in northern South America, with one species in Central America. Members of the genus are commo ...

fasciata'' when they were first described by Lenz in 1886. In 1889, Eugène Simon described and identified a male as ''P. pulchripes'', placing it in the new genus ''Viridasius'' in the

Ctenidae Wandering spiders (''Ctenidae'') are a family of spiders that includes the Brazilian wandering spiders. These spiders have a distinctive longitudinal groove on the top-rear of their oval carapace similar to those of the Amaurobiidae. They are hig ...

. In the same work, Simon described the genus '' Vulsor'', which he would later merge with this one. He renamed the single species ''Vulsor fasciatus'', retaining the species name Lenz gave in the original description. In 1967,

Pekka T. Lehtinen Pekka T. Lehtinen (born 1934) is a Finnish arachnology, arachnologist and taxonomy (biology), taxonomist. He is known for his works in systematics and for the many expeditions in which he has participated. Biography Lehtinen was born on 5 April ...

reorganized the Araneomorphae, re-separating ''Viridasius'' from ''Vulsor''. In 2015, the genus was moved from the Ctenidae to the newly created

References

Monotypic Araneomorphae genera Spiders of Madagascar Taxa named by Eugène Simon Viridasiidae {{Viridasiidae-stub