''Heptathela'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

spider Spiders (order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...

s that includes the Kimura spider (''Heptathela kimurai''). They are trapdoor spiders of the family

Liphistiidae The spider family Liphistiidae, recognized by Tamerlan Thorell in 1869, comprises 8 genera and about 100 species of medium-sized spiders from Southeast Asia, China, and Japan. They are among the most basal living spiders, belonging to the subord ...

and are found in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

, including

Okinawa is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 Square kilometre, km2 (880 sq mi). ...

and the

Ryukyu Islands The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yon ...

. Spiders of this genus lack venom glands. Full text at (60 MB) Females are up to 25 mm long, males slightly smaller. Burrows have an oval shaped door which is hinged across the long diameter.

Name

The genus name is derived from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...

''hepta'' "seven", referring to the number of

spinneret A spinneret is a silk-spinning organ of a spider or the larva of an insect. Some adult insects also have spinnerets, such as those borne on the forelegs of Embioptera. Spinnerets are usually on the underside of a spider's opisthosoma, and are ...

glands.

Species

, the

World Spider Catalog The World Spider Catalog (WSC) is an online searchable database concerned with spider taxonomy. It aims to list all accepted families, genera and species, as well as provide access to the related taxonomic literature. The WSC began as a series of ...

accepted the following species: *'' Heptathela aha'' Xu, Ono, Kuntner, Liu & Li, 2019 – Ryukyu Is. *'' Heptathela amamiensis'' Haupt, 1983 – Ryukyu Is. *'' Heptathela crypta'' Xu, Ono, Kuntner, Liu & Li, 2019 – Ryukyu Is. *'' Heptathela gayozan'' Xu, Ono, Kuntner, Liu & Li, 2019 – Ryukyu Is. *'' Heptathela helios'' Tanikawa & Miyashita, 2014 (synonym ''H. yaginumai'' Ono, 1998) – Japan *'' Heptathela higoensis'' Haupt, 1983 – Japan *'' Heptathela kanenoi'' Ono, 1996 – Ryukyu Is. *'' Heptathela kikuyai'' Ono, 1998 – Japan *''

Heptathela kimurai ''Heptathela kimurai'', the Kimura spider, or kimura-gumo (in Japanese), is an Old World spider, found primarily in Japan and named after Arika Kimura, who collected it in 1920. It belongs to the sub-order Mesothelae (primitive burrowing spider ...

'' (Kishida, 1920) (

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specim ...

) – Japan *'' Heptathela kojima'' Xu et al., 2019 – Ryukyu Is. *'' Heptathela kubayama'' Xu et al., 2019 – Ryukyu Is. *'' Heptathela mae'' Xu et al., 2019 – Ryukyu Is. *'' Heptathela otoha'' Xu et al., 2019 – Ryukyu Is. *'' Heptathela shuri'' Xu et al., 2019 – Ryukyu Is. *'' Heptathela sumiyo'' Xu et al., 2019 – Ryukyu Is. *'' Heptathela tokashiki'' Xu et al., 2019 – Ryukyu Is. *'' Heptathela uken'' Xu et al., 2019 – Ryukyu Is. *'' Heptathela unten'' Xu et al., 2019 – Ryukyu Is. *'' Heptathela yakushimaensis'' Ono, 1998 – Japan *'' Heptathela yanbaruensis'' Haupt, 1983 – Okinawa Many of the species formerly placed in this genus have been transferred to other genera in the family Liphistiidae, including '' Sinothela'', '' Songthela'' and ''

Vinathela ''Vinathela'' is a genus of spiders in the family Liphistiidae The spider family Liphistiidae, recognized by Tamerlan Thorell in 1869, comprises 8 genera and about 100 species of medium-sized spiders from Southeast Asia, China, and Japan. The ...

''.

Social reference

This is the genus of spider referenced by Vincent Price in the introduction to Alice Cooper's The Black Widow on his Welcome to my Nightmare album.

References

External links

*
Pictures of ''H. kimurai'' and its burrow
{{Taxonbar, from=Q54931 Liphistiidae Spiders of Asia Mesothelae genera Taxa named by Kyukichi Kishida