''Nilus albocinctus'',

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

''Thalassius albocinctus'', commonly called the fishing spider, is a species of spider found in tropical

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

from India to the Philippines. It is named after its habit of catching small

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

. The spider is striking in appearance and can be easily recognised by the presence of a black, glossy, broad median band bordered by a white lateral band on the

cephalothorax The cephalothorax, also called prosoma in some groups, is a tagma of various arthropods, comprising the head and the thorax fused together, as distinct from the abdomen behind. (The terms ''prosoma'' and ''opisthosoma'' are equivalent to ''cepha ...

and abdomen. The legs are long and yellowish brown. It is usually found near water. Female pisaurids create their egg case in one piece and carry it under their body with their

chelicerae The chelicerae () are the arthropod mouthparts, mouthparts of the subphylum Chelicerata, an arthropod group that includes arachnids, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders. Commonly referred to as "jaws", chelicerae may be shaped as either articulated ...

. This differs from similar looking female lycosids which construct their egg case in two pieces and fasten it behind them with their

spinnerets 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 ar ...

.Sherriffs 1938

Footnotes

References

* SHERRIFFS, W. RAE, (1938) HONG KONG SPIDERS. PART IV The Hong Kong Naturalis
Hong Kong Spiders
* Sunil Jose K., Sebastian, Samson Davis A. and P. Verghese (2003). First record of ''Thalassius albocinctus'' (Doleschall) (Araneae : Pisauridae) from India. ''Entomon'' 28(4): 309-314. * (2008)

version 8.5. ''American Museum of Natural History''.

External links

South Indian Spiders
Pisauridae Spiders of Asia Spiders described in 1859 {{Pisauridae-stub