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Information about Assassin Spider

Assassin spiders
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Arthropoda
Class:Arachnida
Order:Araneae
Suborder:Araneomorphae
Family:Archaeidae
Genera


Afrarchaea
Austrarchaea
Eriauchenius


Assassin spiders are a group of spiders of the family Archaeidae, which are extremely unusual in that they have very long necks vertically separating their head from their thorax by nearly the length of their body itself. They prey upon other spiders, snagging them by surprise with fangs that are proportionately many times larger than those of any other spider.

Assassin spiders were first known from 40 million year old examples trapped in amber, which were found in Europe in the 1840s, and were not known to have living varieties until 1881. They are native to Australia and Africa (including Madagascar), with one species occurring in South America. They are only known to grow to 2 mm in size.

There are actually two genetic lines of the spider, which independently evolved this complex solution to catching prey, in a stunning example of convergent evolution.

Nine new species were described from Madagascar in 2003, bringing the total number of known species to about 30.

Species

Afrarchaea Forster & Platnick, 1984
  • Afrarchaea bergae Lotz, 1996 (South Africa)
  • Afrarchaea entabeniensis Lotz, 2003 (South Africa)
  • Afrarchaea fernkloofensis Lotz, 1996 (South Africa)
  • Afrarchaea fisheri Lotz, 2003 (Madagascar)
  • Afrarchaea godfreyi (Hewitt, 1919) (South Africa, Madagascar)
  • Afrarchaea harveyi Lotz, 2003 (South Africa)
  • Afrarchaea kranskopensis Lotz, 1996 (South Africa)
  • Afrarchaea lawrencei Lotz, 1996 (South Africa)
  • Afrarchaea mahariraensis Lotz, 2003 (Madagascar)
  • Afrarchaea ngomensis Lotz, 1996 (South Africa)
Austrarchaea Forster & Platnick, 1984
  • Austrarchaea daviesae Forster & Platnick, 1984 (Queensland)
  • Austrarchaea hickmani (Butler, 1929) (Victoria)
  • Austrarchaea mainae Platnick, 1991 (Western Australia)
  • Austrarchaea nodosa (Forster, 1956) (Queensland)
  • Austrarchaea robinsi Harvey, 2002 (Western Australia)
Eriauchenius O. P.-Cambridge, 1881
  • Eriauchenius bourgini (Millot, 1948) (Madagascar)
  • Eriauchenius cornutus (Lotz, 2003) (South Africa)
  • Eriauchenius gracilicollis (Millot, 1948) (Madagascar)
  • Eriauchenius jeanneli (Millot, 1948) (Madagascar)
  • Eriauchenius legendrei (Platnick, 1991) (Madagascar)
  • Eriauchenius pauliani (Legendre, 1970) (Madagascar)
  • Eriauchenius ratsirarsoni (Lotz, 2003) (Madagascar)
  • Eriauchenius tsingyensis (Lotz, 2003) (Madagascar)
  • Eriauchenius vadoni (Millot, 1948) (Madagascar)
  • Eriauchenius workmani O. P.-Cambridge, 1881 (Madagascar)

External links

Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. Scientific classification also can be called scientific taxonomy, but should be distinguished from folk taxonomy, which lacks scientific basis.
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Arthropoda
Latreille, 1829

Subphyla and Classes
  • Subphylum Trilobitomorpha
  • Trilobita - trilobites (extinct)
  • Subphylum Chelicerata

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Arachnida
Cuvier, 1812

Extant orders

Acarina
Amblypygi
Araneae
Opiliones
Palpigradi
Pseudoscorpionida
Ricinulei
Schizomida
Scorpiones
Solifugae
Uropygi
Arachnids are a class (Arachnida
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Araneae
Clerck, 1757

Diversity
111 families, 40,000 species

Suborders

Mesothelae
Mygalomorphae
Araneomorphae
 See table of families

Spiders
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Araneomorphae

Diversity
95 families

Families

see Table of families
The Araneomorphae, are a suborder of spiders. They are distinguished by having chelicerae that point diagonally forward and cross in a pinching action, in contrast
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Eriauchenius
O. P-Cambridge, 1881

Diversity
10 species

Type species
Eriauchenius workmanni
O. P-Cambridge

Species

See text.
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Araneae
Clerck, 1757

Diversity
111 families, 40,000 species

Suborders

Mesothelae
Mygalomorphae
Araneomorphae
 See table of families

Spiders
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Archaeidae
C. L. Koch & Berendt, 1854

Diversity
3 genera, 25 species



Genera

see text

The Archaeidae are a spider family with 25 described species in three genera.
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The neck is the part of the body on many limbed vertebrates that distinguishes the head from the torso or trunk.

Anatomy of the human neck

Bony anatomy: The cervical spine

The cervical portion of the human spine
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thorax is a division of an animal's body that lies between the head and the abdomen.

In mammals, the thorax is the region of the body formed by the sternum, the thoracic vertebrae and the ribs. It extends from the neck to the diaphragm, not including the upper limbs.
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Fang may refer to:
  • In mammals, a fang is a canine tooth.
  • A snake's poison-injecting tooth: see snake venom.
  • The Fang people of Central Africa
  • The Fang language spoken by these people.

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Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of the Earth. Physically and geologically, Europe is the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, west of Asia. Europe is bounded to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Mediterranean Sea,
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Centuries: 18th century - 19th century - 20th century

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1840 1841 1842 1843 1844
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Events and trends

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18th century - 19th century - 20th century
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1878 1879 1880 - 1881 - 1882 1883 1884

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Anthem
Advance Australia Fair [1]


Capital Canberra

Largest city Sydney
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Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30,221,532 km² (11,668,545 sq mi) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area, and 20.4% of the total land area.
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Motto
Tanindrazana, Fahafahana, Fandrosoana   (Malagasy)
Patrie, liberté, progrès   (French)
"Ancestral-land, Liberty, Progress"
Anthem

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South America is a continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean; North America and the Caribbean Sea lie
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In evolutionary biology, convergent evolution is the process whereby organisms not closely related (not monophyletic), independently evolve similar traits as a result of having to adapt to similar environments or ecological niches[1].
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20th century - 21st century - 22nd century
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Eriauchenius
O. P-Cambridge, 1881

Diversity
10 species

Type species
Eriauchenius workmanni
O. P-Cambridge

Species

See text.
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E. gracilicollis

Binomial name
Eriauchenius gracilicollis
(Millot, 1948)



Eriauchenius gracilicollis is an assassin spider.
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