Philoponella
Encyclopedia
Philoponella is a genus of uloborid spiders. Like all Uloboridae, these species have no venom
.
The species P. vicinus uses its silk to crush its victims to death.
and Portia species can also be found, acting as kleptoparasites and predators, respectively. When relatively large prey is trapped on the periphery of the colony, two females cooperate in about 10% of cases in wrapping it, which increases their chances of success about fourfold. However, only one female then feeds on this prey. Cooperative capture is similar in P. republicana, where more than two individuals may work together.
, Africa
, southeastern Asia
and Australia
, with almost half of them found from the southern United States
to northern Argentina
.
Venom
Venom is the general term referring to any variety of toxins used by certain types of animals that inject it into their victims by the means of a bite or a sting...
.
The species P. vicinus uses its silk to crush its victims to death.
Cooperation
Some species (among them P. congregabilis and P. oweni) construct communal webs, but nevertheless do not capture prey cooperatively. However, a few species, such as P. raffrayi, are known to cooperate in prey capture. A colony of P. raffrayi is composed of individual orb-webs connected by non-adhesive silk. Its average body length is about 6 mm in females and 3 mm in males. Adult females are orange for at least a week after the final molt, and become black a few weeks later. In these colonies, ArgyrodesArgyrodes
Spiders of the genus Argyrodes , also called dewdrop spiders, occur worldwide. They are best known as kleptoparasites: they steal other spiders' prey. They invade and reside in their host's web even though they can spin their own webs...
and Portia species can also be found, acting as kleptoparasites and predators, respectively. When relatively large prey is trapped on the periphery of the colony, two females cooperate in about 10% of cases in wrapping it, which increases their chances of success about fourfold. However, only one female then feeds on this prey. Cooperative capture is similar in P. republicana, where more than two individuals may work together.
Distribution
Philoponella species occur pantropical in the AmericasAmericas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, southeastern Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, with almost half of them found from the southern United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to northern Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
.
Species
- Philoponella angolensis (Lessert, 1933) — Ivory Coast, AngolaAngolaAngola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
- Philoponella arizonica (Gertsch, 1936) — USA, MexicoMexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
- Philoponella bella Opell, 1979 — ColombiaColombiaColombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
- Philoponella collina (Keyserling, 1883) — PeruPeruPeru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
- Philoponella congregabilis (RainbowWilliam Joseph RainbowWilliam Joseph Rainbow was an entomologist and arachnologist whose work includes the first catalogue of Australian spiders.-Life:...
, 1916) — New South WalesNew South WalesNew South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales... - Philoponella cymbiformis Xie et al., 1997 — ChinaChinaChinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
- Philoponella divisa Opell, 1979 — Colombia
- Philoponella fasciata (Mello-Leitão, 1917) — BrazilBrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, ParaguayParaguayParaguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
, Argentina - Philoponella gibberosa (Kulczynski, 1908) — JavaJavaJava is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...
- Philoponella herediae Opell, 1987 — Costa RicaCosta RicaCosta Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
- Philoponella hilaris (SimonEugène SimonEugène Simon was a French arachnologist. His many taxonomic contributions include categorizing and naming many spiders, as well as creating genera such as Anelosimus, Psellocoptus and Phlogius....
, 1906) — IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world... - Philoponella lingulata Dong, Zhu & Yoshida, 2005 — China
- Philoponella lunaris (C. L. Koch, 1839) — Brazil
- Philoponella mollis (Thorell, 1895) — MyanmarMyanmarBurma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....
- Philoponella nasuta (Thorell, 1895) — China, Myanmar
- Philoponella nigromaculata Yoshida, 1992 — TaiwanTaiwanTaiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
- Philoponella operosa (Simon, 1896) — South AfricaSouth AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
- Philoponella oweni (Chamberlin, 1924) — USA, Mexico
- Philoponella pantherina (Keyserling, 1890) — New South Wales
- Philoponella para Opell, 1979 — Paraguay, Argentina
- Philoponella pisiformis Dong, Zhu & Yoshida, 2005 — China
- Philoponella pomelita Grismado, 2004 — Argentina
- Philoponella prominens (Bösenberg & Strand, 1906) — China, KoreaKoreaKorea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
, JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south... - Philoponella quadrituberculata (Thorell, 1892) — Java, Moluccas
- Philoponella raffrayi (Simon, 1891) — Java, Moluccas
- Philoponella ramirezi Grismado, 2004 — Brazil
- Philoponella republicana (Simon, 1891) — Panama to BoliviaBoliviaBolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
- Philoponella sabah Yoshida, 1992 — Borneo
- Philoponella semiplumosa (Simon, 1893) — USA, Greater AntillesGreater AntillesThe Greater Antilles are one of three island groups in the Caribbean. Comprising Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola , and Puerto Rico, the Greater Antilles constitute almost 90% of the land mass of the entire West Indies.-Greater Antilles in context :The islands of the Caribbean Sea, collectively known as...
to VenezuelaVenezuelaVenezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south... - Philoponella signatella (Roewer, 1951) — Mexico to HondurasHondurasHonduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
- Philoponella subvittata Opell, 1981 — GuyanaGuyanaGuyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...
- Philoponella tingens (Chamberlin & Ivie, 1936) — Costa Rica to Colombia
- Philoponella truncata (Thorell, 1895) — Myanmar, Java
- Philoponella variabilis (Keyserling, 1887) — QueenslandQueenslandQueensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
, New South Wales - Philoponella vicinaPhiloponella vicinaPhiloponella vicina is a kind of spider than does not use venom, but instead wraps its prey in hundreds of meters of spider silk to crush it to death...
(O. P.-Cambridge, 1899) — Mexico to Costa Rica - Philoponella vittata (Keyserling, 1881) — Panama to Paraguay
- Philoponella wuyiensis Xie et al., 1997 — China