Sinopoda scurion

Sinopoda Scurion is an eyeless Webspinnenart from the family of giant crab spiders ( Sparassidae ). She was discovered in a cave in the Lao province Khammuan by Peter Hunter from the section Arachnologie the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt am Main and described in 2012.

Features

So far, single adult female specimens and several juvenile and subadult female and male specimens were found. The animals were collected 2003-2012. Sinopoda Scurion is a medium sized giant crab spider. The body length of the females is 10.9 to 13.6 mm. The front body of the holotype, an adult female is 5.1 mm long, the abdomen 6.3 mm long. The description of the kind took place via a characterization of the copulatory organs, including the absence of eyes and lenses were used for the description. The color of the specimens in ethanol is pale brown - yellow.

Distribution and habitat

The site is located in the Lao province Khammuan, 9.5 km northeast of the city Thakek. The specimens were found there in a limestone cave in the lightless zone of a large crevice. Other localities are not yet available. At the entrance of this cave were detected as another giant crab spiders Heteropoda tetrica and Heteropoda maxima.

Way of life

About the biology of the species is so far almost nothing is known. The spiders hunt either by waiting or slowly move forward, but can run away quickly in case of failure.