''Pandava'' is a genus of

araneomorph The Araneomorphae (also called the Labidognatha or "true spiders") are an infraorder of spiders. They are distinguishable by chelicerae (fangs) that point diagonally forward and cross in a pinching action, in contrast to the Mygalomorphae (taran ...

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 ...

s in the family

Titanoecidae Titanoecidae is a family of araneomorph spiders first described by Pekka T. Lehtinen in 1967. It is fairly widespread in the New World and Eurasia with five genera and more than 50 species worldwide. These are mostly dark-colored builders of "wool ...

Taxonomy

In 1967,

Pekka T. Lehtinen Pekka T. Lehtinen (born 1934) is a Finnish arachnology, arachnologist and taxonomy (biology), taxonomist. He is known for his works in systematics and for the many expeditions in which he has participated. Biography Lehtinen was born on 5 April ...

transferred the species ''Amaurobius laminatus'', first described by

Tamerlan Thorell Tord Tamerlan Teodor Thorell (3 May 1830 – 22 December 1901) was a Sweden, Swedish arachnologist. Thorell studied spiders with Giacomo Doria at the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale de Genoa. He corresponded with other arachnologists, such as Oc ...

in 1878, into his newly created genus ''Pandava'' as ''P. laminata'', placing it in the family

. Over 30 years later, in 2001, a further species, ''Pandava hunanensis'', was added to the genus. A major revision of ''Pandava'' in 2010 saw five new species being added.

Diagnosis

Male spiders placed in the genus ''Pandava'' differ from other species of Titanoecidae in features of the

palpal bulb The two palpal bulbs – also known as palpal organs and genital bulbs – are the copulatory organs of a male spider. They are borne on the last segment of the pedipalps (the front "limbs" of a spider), giving the spider an appearance often descr ...

: the tegular process (a projection from the tegulum) is smaller; the median apophysis (one of the hardened plates making up the palpal bulb) is thumb-shaped. Females differ in features of the epigynum: the copulatory openings are more anterior.

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 eleven species: *'' Pandava andhraca'' (Patel & Reddy, 1990) – India *'' Pandava aruni'' Bodkhe, Uniyal, Kamble, Manthen, Santape & Chikhale, 2017 – India *'' Pandava banna'' Lin & Li, 2022 – China *'' Pandava ganesha'' Almeida-Silva, Griswold & Brescovit, 2010 – India *'' Pandava ganga'' Almeida-Silva, Griswold & Brescovit, 2010 – India *'' Pandava hunanensis'' Yin & Bao, 2001 – China *'' Pandava kama'' Almeida-Silva, Griswold & Brescovit, 2010 – India *'' Pandava laminata'' (Thorell, 1878) (type species) – Tanzania, Kenya, Madagascar, India, Sri Lanka to China, Indonesia, Philippines, Micronesia, French Polynesia. Introduced to Britain, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Hungary *'' Pandava nathabhaii'' (Patel & Patel, 1975) – India *'' Pandava sarasvati'' Almeida-Silva, Griswold & Brescovit, 2010 – Myanmar, Thailand *'' Pandava shiva'' Almeida-Silva, Griswold & Brescovit, 2010 – India, Pakistan

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2279293 Titanoecidae Araneomorphae genera Spiders of Africa Spiders of Asia Taxa named by Pekka T. Lehtinen