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Type: Articles
Published: 2012-05-16
Page range: 65–68
Abstract views: 37
PDF downloaded: 1

A new species of Caloctenus (Araneae: Ctenidae) from Colombia

Programa Académico de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad del Valle, Santiago de Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia
Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Perú
Araneae Ctenidae

Abstract

The genus Caloctenus Keyserling, 1877 comprises four species of small (3–7 mm) ground-dwelling spiders found in cloud forests and adjacent habitats of the northern Andes of South America, at elevations between 1800 to 2600 m (Silva 2004). All species apparently have a restricted geographic range and most are only known from the type locality. These spiders exhibit a cryptic coloration having a dark brown body with iridescent scales, sparse white plumose hairs and club-shaped red hairs, an ornamentation pattern that makes them indistinguishable from the leaf litter and hard to find. Recent attempts to find more caloctenine spiders in a Peruvian type locality were unsuccessful and it appears their populations, in general, are declining as fast as are their mossy and humid microhabitats.

References

  1. Hilty, S.L. & Brown, W.L. (1986) A guide to the birds of Colombia. Princeton University Press. New Jersey, USA.

    Platnick, N.I. (2012) The world spider catalog, version 12.5. American Museum of Natural History, online at http://research.amnh.org/iz/spiders/catalog. DOI: 10.5531/db.iz.0001 (accessed 15 February 2012).

    Polotow, D. & Brescovit, A.D. (2008) Revision of the neotropical spider genus Gephyroctenus (Araneae: Ctenidae: Calocteninae). Revista Brasileira de Zoologia, 25, 705–715.

    Polotow, D. & Brescovit, A.D. (2009) Description of Toca, a new neotropical spider genus (Araneae, Ctenidae, Calocteninae). Journal of Arachnology, 37, 243–245.

    Silva, D. (2003) Higher-level relationships of the spider family Ctenidae (Araneae: Ctenoidea). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 274, 1–86

    Silva, D. (2004) Revision of the spider genus Caloctenus Keyserling, 1877 (Araneae, Ctenidae). Revista peruana de Biología, 11, 5–26.