The spider genus ''Spintharus'' occurs from the northeastern United States to

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 ...

Nicholas Marcellus Hentz Nicholas Marcellus Hentz (July 25, 1797 – November 4, 1856) was a French American educator and arachnologist. Biography Hentz was born in Versailles, France. He was the youngest child of Nicolas Hentz, Charles Nicholas Arnould Hentz and Marie-A ...

circumscribed In geometry, a circumscribed circle for a set of points is a circle passing through each of them. Such a circle is said to ''circumscribe'' the points or a polygon formed from them; such a polygon is said to be ''inscribed'' in the circle. * Circum ...

the genus in 1850, initially as a

monospecific 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 "unispe ...

genus containing his newly described species ''S. flavidus''. It is very similar to the genus ''

Thwaitesia ''Thwaitesia'' is a genus of comb-footed spiders that was first described by Octavius Pickard-Cambridge in 1881. The genus is named after George Henry Kendrick Thwaites. ''T. affinis'' females are long, and males are long. ''T. bracteata'' a ...

'', and both are similar to '' Episinus''. Unlike ''

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 ...

'', they have two setae in place of a

colulus Cribellum literally means "little sieve", and in biology the term generally applies to anatomical structures in the form of tiny perforated plates. In certain groups of diatoms it refers to microscopically punctured regions of the frustule, or ...

. Specimens of ''S. flavidus'' are variable in structure. Only some have an elevated eye region or humps on the anterior of the abdomen. Females of ''S. gracilis'' are 3.7mm long, males 2.3mm. A revision of the genus by and colleagues printed in 2018 included the description of fifteen new species, as well as the removal of ''S. argenteus''. Some of the new

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

s were named in honor of political figures, artists, and celebrities. As of 2017, when the electronic pre-print was published, ''Spintharus'' was the spider genus with the most species named after celebrities. An earlier revision of the genus was by

Herbert Walter Levi Herbert Walter Levi (January 3, 1921 – November 3, 2014) was professor emeritus of zoology and curator of arachnology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University. He was born in Germany, and was educated there and at Leighton Park ...

; his taxonomy recognized two species: ''S. flavidus'' and ''S. gracilis''.

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 ...

(WSC), largely following Agnarsson and colleagues, accepts the following extant species: * '' Spintharus barackobamai'' – Cuba * '' Spintharus berniesandersi'' – Cuba * '' Spintharus davidattenboroughi'' – Jamaica * '' Spintharus davidbowiei'' – Mexico * '' Spintharus dayleae'' – Saint Lucia, Grenada * '' Spintharus flavidus'' (type species) – USA, Central and South America * '' Spintharus frosti'' – Dominican Republic * '' Spintharus giraldoalayoni'' – Cuba * '' Spintharus goodbreadae'' – Cuba * '' Spintharus gracilis'' – Brazil * '' Spintharus greerae'' – Mexico * '' Spintharus jesselaueri'' – Dominica * '' Spintharus leonardodicaprioi'' – Dominican Republic *''Spintharus leverger'' – Brazil * '' Spintharus manrayi'' – Cuba * '' Spintharus michelleobamaae'' – Cuba * '' Spintharus rallorum'' – Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts and Nevis * '' Spintharus skelly'' – Dominican Republic The WSC also recognizes one fossil species in the genus: * '' Spintharus longisoma'' —

Dominican amber Dominican amber is amber from the Dominican Republic derived from resin of the extinct tree '' Hymenaea protera''. Dominican amber differentiates itself from Baltic amber by being nearly always transparent, and it has a higher number of fossil in ...

Formerly accepted species in ''Spintharus'' include: * ''Spintharus minutus'' (= '' Theridion antillanum'' ) * ''Spintharus hentzi'' (= ''Spintharus flavidus'' ) * ''Spintharus argenteus'' (nomen dubium)

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q2712802 Theridiidae Theridiidae genera Spiders of North America Spiders of South America Taxa named by Nicholas Marcellus Hentz