''Cladomelea'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

n orb-weaver spiders first described by

Eugène Simon Eugène Louis Simon (; 30 April 1848 – 17 November 1924) was a French naturalist who worked particularly on insects and spiders, but also on birds and plants. He is by far the most prolific spider Taxonomy (biology), taxonomist in history, ...

in 1895. Adult females of the genus are

bolas spider A bolas spider is a member of the orb-weaver spider (family Araneidae) that, instead of spinning a typical Spider web, orb web, hunts by using one or more sticky "capture blobs" on the end of a Spider silk, silk line, known as a "bolas". By swing ...

s, capturing their prey with one or more sticky drops at the end of a single line of silk rather than in a web. Males and juvenile females capture their prey directly with their legs.

Species

it contains four species: *''

Cladomelea akermani ''Cladomelea akermani'' is a species of spider in the orb-weaver spider family Araneidae, found in South Africa. ''Cladomelea'' species, including ''C. akermani'', are "bolas spiders" – adult females capture their prey by using a sticky d ...

'' Hewitt, 1923 – South Africa *'' Cladomelea debeeri'' Roff & Dippenaar-Schoeman, 2004 – South Africa *'' Cladomelea longipes'' (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1877) – Congo *'' Cladomelea ornata'' Hirst, 1907 – Central Africa

References

Araneidae genera Spiders of Africa Taxa named by Eugène Simon {{Araneidae-stub