''Arachnocoris'' is a small genus of

true bug Hemiptera (; ) is an order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising more than 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 a ...

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 biogeog ...

, including French Guyana and West Indies (André Lopez). It is often found living in the webs of the pholcid

spider Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and ran ...

'' Mesabolivar aurantiacus'' ( 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 ''Wikt:coppe, 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 ...

, mostly those of the family

Pholcidae The Pholcidae are a Family (biology), family of Araneomorphae, araneomorph spiders. The family contains more than 1,800 individual species of pholcids, including those commonly known as cellar spider, daddy long-legs spider, carpenter spid ...

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

kleptoparasitic Kleptoparasitism (originally spelt clepto-parasitism, meaning "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 fe ...

spider genus ''

Argyrodes The genus name is a combination of the Ancient Greek " argyros" (), meaning "silver", and the suffix "-odes", meaning "like". ''Argyrodes'', also called dewdrop spiders, is a genus of comb-footed spiders that was first described by Eugène Louis ...

''.

Species

* '' Arachnocoris albomaculatus'' Scott, 1881 * ''

Arachnocoris trinitatis ''Arachnocoris'' is a small genus of true bugs found in the Neotropics, including French Guyana and West Indies (André Lopez). It is often found living in the webs of the Pholcidae, pholcid spider ''Mesabolivar aurantiacus'' (Mello-Leitão, 193 ...

'' Bergroth, 1914—Trinidad * '' Arachnocoris karukerae'' Lopez, 1990—French Antilles * ''

Arachnocoris berytoides ''Arachnocoris'' is a small genus of true bugs found in the Neotropics, including French Guyana and West Indies (André Lopez). It is often found living in the webs of the pholcid spider '' Mesabolivar aurantiacus'' ( Mello-Leitão, 1930).Sewla ...

'' 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, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...

and

Grenada Grenada is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea. The southernmost of the Windward Islands, Grenada is directly south of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and about north of Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidad and the So ...

(

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

).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 "unisp ...

.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 Hemiptera of South America {{Heteroptera-stub