Trogloraptor
T. marching toni, male specimen
Trogloraptor marching toni ( from Ancient Greek τρώγλη trōglē, cave 'as well as from Latin raptor, predator ') is a Webspinnenart from the subordination of the Real spiders ( Araneomorphae ). It is so far the only member of the genus Trogloraptor and Trogloraptoridae family. The yellow- brown spider inhabits an area in western North America, including the extreme southwest Oregon and possibly the extreme northwestern California. It can be found in the undergrowth of coast redwood primary forest and in the dark zone of different cave systems, where it builds rudimentary networks. About their nutrition and reproduction is not known. Their unique among all spiders claw-like leg extensions suggest a predatory lifestyle.
Species, genus and family were in 2012 by Charles E. Griswold, Tracy Audisio and Joel Ledford, arachnologists at the California Academy of Sciences firstdescribed. Presumably they form the sister taxon of all other together in the superfamily Dysderoidea families.
Features
Male specimens of T. marching toni achieve a prosoma - opisthosoma length of about 9.7 mm, females are approximately 9.4 mm slightly smaller. The yellow-brown carapace is pear-shaped and narrowed towards the front. The oval, sparsely bristled abdomen is gray in the male, purple in the female. The pear-shaped bulb of the male is much swollen and has at its tip a ruffled extension. T. marching toni has six eyes: The eyes are missing front center of the kind rear center eyes are separated. T. marching toni has brown pine mouth. At the ends of the first Chelicerenglieder sit four small and one large tooth. The poison gland terminates in a pore at the tip of the second link. The light brown legs are long and slender. The leg formula for T. marching toni is 1243 which means that the first pair of legs is the longest, the third the shortest. At the end of the fourth leg member ( tarsus I) the animals have hook-shaped, movable claw appendages.
Distribution and habitat
The spider has been discovered in various caves in the Klamath - Siskiyou region of Oregon to the California border. Another distribution is not yet known. A juvenile Trogloraptor - individual was found in coast redwood primary forest of northwestern California under deadwood. Since it has a different design than the adult T. marching toni specimens found in caves, it is unclear whether it belongs to this or a separate species. Despite an intensive search, no specimens were found under dead wood at the entrance of caves, which are inhabited by T. marching toni.
Way of life
From field observations it is known that the spiders build sparse networks of a few threads and can be hang from their networks from the cave ceiling down. Laboratory studies on captive specimens that should clarify the conditions of life, failed because the animals refused food offered and starved. Details about lifestyle and hunting method are therefore not yet known.
Taxonomy and systematics
Trogloraptor marching toni was first found in 2010 in the M2 Cave in Josephine County, Oregon, more specimens have been collected in the course of the same and the following year. Described in 2012 by Charles E. Griswold, Tracy Audisio and Joel Ledford, arachnologists at the California Academy of Sciences, the spiders as a new species, genus and family. The genus name Trogloraptor ( ancient Greek τρώγλη / trogle for " cave "; raptor Latin for " robber " ), the authors selected based on the cave habitat and the fishing claws of animals. The specific epithet marching toni is Neil Marchington, the Deputy Sheriff of Deschutes County dedicated. Marchington, who works alongside his Police Office as a cave biologist, had the researchers allows access to the caves of the region and supports them in their field studies.
Comprehensive molecular or morphological studies on the systematic position of Trogloraptor within the spiders are not yet available. Your simply constructed, haplogynen genitals ( in the female with a single opening for fertilization and egg-laying ) and the pear-shaped bulb of the male, they must demonstrate Griswold and colleagues as a member of the partial order Haplogynae from. An analysis based on 16 characteristics revealed that Trogloraptor probably forms the Schwesterklade brought together in the superfamily Dysderoidea families. Thus, the type joins a number of relict species from the Pacific Northwest who survived there while they disappeared in the rest of the continent together with the Redwoodwäldern. If the prisoner in Redwood undergrowth California juvenile T. marching toni be slammed, family and genus were monotypic, otherwise it would belong to a previously undescribed sister species.