''Sason'' 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 ...

of bark-dwelling brushed trapdoor 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 1887. It is distributed from the

Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (; Seychellois Creole: ), is an island country and archipelagic state consisting of 155 islands (as per the Constitution) in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, Victoria, ...

through India to northern Australia. The closest related genus seems to be the

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 ...

'' Paracenobiopelma''.

Description

These are small, compact spiders, ranging from long. They are strongly patterned and have stout legs, physically resembling those of the tree trapdoor spiders.

Distribution

Most species are endemic small areas, many of which are small islands that emerged from the ocean floor in recent geological times with no connection to the mainland. These were likely inhabited by pregnant females surviving in floating logs, while most of the other speciation is believed to have occurred due to fragmentation of the former supercontinent

Gondwana Gondwana ( ; ) was a large landmass, sometimes referred to as a supercontinent. The remnants of Gondwana make up around two-thirds of today's continental area, including South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia (continent), Australia, Zea ...

Taxonomy

The genus was erected by

Octavius Pickard-Cambridge Octavius Pickard-Cambridge FRS (3 November 1828 – 9 March 1917) was an English clergyman and zoologist. He was a keen arachnologist who described and named more than 900 species of spider from a large collection that he made with contrib ...

in 1883 for the type species ''Sarpedon robustum'', but this name was already in use for a genus of false click beetles. In 1887,

renamed the genus to ''Sason'', an abbreviation of the biblical judge

Samson SAMSON (Software for Adaptive Modeling and Simulation Of Nanosystems) is a computer software platform for molecular design being developed bOneAngstromand previously by the NANO-D group at the French Institute for Research in Computer Science an ...

. The earlier name was based on

Sarpedon Sarpedon (; ) is the name of several figures in Greek mythology * Sarpedon, a son of Zeus, who fought on the side of Troy in the Trojan War. Although in the ''Iliad'', he was the son of Zeus Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Gre ...

, a legendary king at the siege of

Troy Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...

, alluding to their "regal" appearance.

Species

it contains nine species: *'' Sason andamanicum'' (Simon, 1888) – India (Andaman Is.) *'' Sason colemani''

Raven A raven is any of several large-bodied passerine bird species in the genus '' Corvus''. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between crows and ravens; the two names are assigne ...

, 1986 – Australia (Queensland) *'' Sason hirsutum'' Schwendinger, 2003 – Indonesia *'' Sason maculatum'' ( Roewer, 1963) – Mariana Is., Caroline Is. *'' Sason pectinatum'' Kulczyński, 1908 – New Guinea *'' Sason rameshwaram'' Siliwal & Molur, 2009 – India *''

Sason robustum ''Sason robustum'' is a species of barychelid trapdoor spiders. It is only found in southern India, Sri Lanka and the Seychelles. Males are about 9 mm long, females almost 11 mm. Distinguishing features ''Sason robustum'' is charac ...

'' (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1883) (

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * ...

) – India, Sri Lanka, Seychelles *'' Sason sechellanum'' Simon, 1898 – Seychelles *'' Sason sundaicum'' Schwendinger, 2003 – Thailand, Malaysia

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2706571

Sason Sason is a town in the Batman Province of Turkey. It is the seat of the Sason District.İl ...

Spiders of Africa Spiders of Asia Spiders of Oceania Taxa named by Eugène Simon