''Arachnocoris'' is a small genus of

true bug Hemiptera (; ) is an order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising over 80,000 species within groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, assassin bugs, bed bugs, and shield bugs. They range in size from to arou ...

s found in the

Neotropics The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In bi ...

. It is often found living in the webs of the pholcid

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 d ...

Mesabolivar aurantiacus ''Mesabolivar'' is a genus of cellar spiders that was first described by M. A. González-Sponga in 1998. Species it contains ninety-four species, found only in South America and on Trinidad: *'' M. acrensis'' Huber, 2018 – Brazil *'' M. amad ...

'' ( Mello-Leitão, 1930).Sewlal & Starr 2008 It seems to prefer empty webs, possibly utilizing them as a ready-made prey-capture device, and possibly as a site for finding mates. Members of this genus are often found living in

spider web A spider web, spiderweb, spider's web, or cobweb (from the archaic word '' coppe'', meaning "spider") is a structure created by a spider out of proteinaceous spider silk extruded from its spinnerets, generally meant to catch its prey. Sp ...

, mostly those of the family

Pholcidae The Pholcidae are a family of araneomorph spiders. The family contains over 1,800 individual species of pholcids, including those commonly known as cellar spider, daddy long-legs spider, carpenter spider, daddy long-legger, vibrating spi ...

. The body of ''Arachnocoris'' is adapted for life in spider webs, with white markings on dark ground, similar to the

kleptoparasitic Kleptoparasitism (etymologically, parasitism by theft) is a form of feeding in which one animal deliberately takes food from another. The strategy is evolutionarily stable when stealing is less costly than direct feeding, which can mean when fo ...

spider genus ''

Argyrodes ''Argyrodes'', also called dewdrop spiders, is a genus of comb-footed spiders that was first described by Eugène Louis Simon in 1864. They occur worldwide, and are best known for their kleptoparasitism. They can spin their own webs, but tend to ...

''.

Species

* ''

Arachnocoris albomaculatus ''Arachnocoris'' is a small genus of true bugs found in the Neotropics. It is often found living in the webs of the pholcid spider '' Mesabolivar aurantiacus'' ( Mello-Leitão, 1930).Sewlal & Starr 2008 It seems to prefer empty webs, possibly ...

'' Scott, 1881 * ''

Arachnocoris trinitatis ''Arachnocoris trinitatis'' is a true bug species found in Trinidad, West Indies. It is often found living in the webs of the pholcid spider Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fang ...

'' Bergroth, 1914—Trinidad * ''

Arachnocoris karukerae ''Arachnocoris'' is a small genus of true bugs found in the Neotropics. It is often found living in the webs of the pholcid spider '' Mesabolivar aurantiacus'' ( Mello-Leitão, 1930).Sewlal & Starr 2008 It seems to prefer empty webs, possibly ...

'' Lopez, 1990—French Antilles * ''

Arachnocoris berytoides ''Arachnocoris'' is a small genus of true bugs found in the Neotropics. It is often found living in the webs of the pholcid spider '' Mesabolivar aurantiacus'' ( Mello-Leitão, 1930).Sewlal & Starr 2008 It seems to prefer empty webs, possibly ...

'' Say

Taxonomy

John Scott described two new species in this genus in 1881, which was originally placed in a distinct subgenus by Reuter. This was rejected in 1908, when the discovery of '' Parachnocoris'' connected ''Arachnocoris'' with the more typical members of the subfamily Nabinae. By 1925, six species were recognized, ranging from

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of the same name, Brazil's List of Brazilian states by population, third-most populous state, and the List of largest citi ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

and Grenada (

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Great ...

).Myers 1925 Today, ''Arachnocoris'' and ''Pararachnocoris'' are placed in the highly specialized neotropical tribus "Arachnocorini". About a dozen species are recognized as of 2007, while ''Pararachnocoris'' is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

.Kuznetsova ''et al.'' 2007

Footnotes

References

* (1925): Biological notes on ''Arachnocoris albomaculatus'' Scott (Hemiptera; Nabidae). ''Journal of the New York Entomological Society'' 33(3): 136–146. * (2007): Cytogenetic Characterization of the Trinidad Endemic, ''Arachnocoris trinitatus'' Bergroth: the First Data for the Tribe Arachnocorini (Heteroptera: Cimicimorpha: Nabidae). ''Folia biologica'' 55(1-2): 17–26
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* (2008): Observations of the insect ''Arachnocoris trinitatis'' (Heteroptera: Nabidae) as an inquiline of the spider ''Mesabolivar aurantiacus'' (Araneae: Pholcidae). ''Caribbean Journal of Science'' 44(1): 132–135
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Nabidae Heteroptera genera {{Heteroptera-stub