| Taxon | Stegodyphus |
|---|---|
| Authority | Simon, 1873[1] |
| Type species | S. lineatus |
| Type species authority | (Latreille, 1817) |
| Subdivision ranks | Species |
| Subdivision | 20, see text |
Stegodyphus is a genus of velvet spiders that was first described by Eugène Simon in 1873.[2] They are distributed from Africa to Europe and Asia, with one species (S. manaus) found in Brazil. The name is derived from Ancient Greek στέγω (stegos), meaning "covered".
Behavior
At least three species are social spiders,[3] and several are known to use ballooning as a method of dispersal.[4]
Species
As of September 2025 it contains about twenty species:[1]
- Stegodyphus africanus (Blackwall, 1866) – Africa
- Stegodyphus bicolor (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1869) – Southern Africa
- Stegodyphus dufouri (Audouin, 1826) – North, West Africa
- Stegodyphus dumicola Pocock, 1898 – Central, Southern Africa
- Stegodyphus hildebrandti (Karsch, 1878) – Central, East Africa, Zanzibar
- Stegodyphus lineatus (Latreille, 1817) (type) – Southern Europe, North Africa to Tajikistan
- Stegodyphus lineifrons Pocock, 1898 – East Africa
- Stegodyphus manaus Kraus & Kraus, 1992 – Brazil
- Stegodyphus manicatus Simon, 1876 – North, West Africa
- Stegodyphus mimosarum Pavesi, 1883 – Africa, Madagascar
- Stegodyphus mirandus Pocock, 1899 – India
- Stegodyphus nathistmus Kraus & Kraus, 1989 – Morocco to Yemen
- Stegodyphus pacificus Pocock, 1900 – Jordan, Iran, Pakistan, India
- Stegodyphus sabulosus Tullgren, 1910 – East, Southern Africa
- Stegodyphus sarasinorum Karsch, 1892 – India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar
- Stegodyphus simplicifrons Simon, 1906 – Madagascar
- Stegodyphus tentoriicola Purcell, 1904 – South Africa
- Stegodyphus tibialis (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1869) – India, Myanmar, Thailand, China
- Stegodyphus tingelin Kraus & Kraus, 1989 – Cameroon
References
- ^ "Gen. Stegodyphus Simon, 1873". World Spider Catalog. Natural History Museum Bern. doi:10.24436/2. Retrieved 2025-09-22.
- ^ Simon, E. (1873). "Etudes arachnologiques. 2e Mémoire. III. Note sur les espèces européennes de la famille des Eresidae.". Annales de la Société Entomologique de France. 3 (5): 335–358.
- ^ Majer, M. et al. (2013). "Habitat productivity constrains the distribution of social spiders across continents – case study of the genus Stegodyphus". Frontiers in Zoology. 10 (9): 9. doi:10.1186/1742-9994-10-9. PMC 3599804. PMID 23433065
- ^ Schneider, J. M. et al. (2001). "Dispersal of Stegodyphus dumicola (Araneae, Eresidae): They do balloon after all!". The Journal of Arachnology. 29: 114–16. doi:10.1636/0161-8202(2001)029[0114:DOSDAE2.0.CO;2]. S2CID 4707752