''Titanoeca quadriguttata'' is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

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 ...

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 ...

. It is widespread in

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, though absent from

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, and is found in

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. The females of the species are approximately 6 mm long and have a dark brownish plain

abdomen The abdomen (colloquially called the gut, belly, tummy, midriff, tucky, or stomach) is the front part of the torso between the thorax (chest) and pelvis in humans and in other vertebrates. The area occupied by the abdomen is called the abdominal ...

and dark

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 ...

. Males are about 4.5 mm and have a broad light reddish brown

and a slimmer black

with two pairs of shining white dots. Though similar in general appearance to '' Titanoeca psammophila'', it is larger and the

epigyne The epigyne or epigynum is the external genital structure of female spiders. As the epigyne varies greatly in form in different species, even in closely related ones, it often provides the most distinctive characteristic for recognizing species. ...

and male palpal organs are distinctive, as is the palpal tibia, viewed from above and the male lacks the spots. Like the rest of the genus, the spider has a

calamistrum In spiders, the calamistrum is a row of specialized leg bristles used to comb out fine bands of spider silk, silk. It is only found on cribellate spiders, that is, spiders that possess the spinning organ known as the cribellum. The calamistrum and ...

on the

metatarsus The metatarsal bones or metatarsus (: metatarsi) are a group of five long bones in the midfoot, located between the tarsal bones (which form the heel and the ankle) and the phalanges ( toes). Lacking individual names, the metatarsal bones are ...

of the fourth pair of legs, which comprises a single row of bristles and extends along most of its length. The spiders are mature in spring; adults can be found from May to July in limestone areas of Germany. It is often found amongst

leaf litter Plant litter (also leaf litter, tree litter, soil litter, litterfall, or duff) is dead plant material (such as leaves, bark, needles, twigs, and cladodes) that has fallen to the ground. This detritus or dead organic material and its constituen ...

or under logs and stones where the spiders have retreats and an open-meshed

cribellate 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 ...

web extends around the opening. Males tug at the threads of females' webs prior to mating. The female remains with the egg sac in the retreat. The male resembles superficially the male of '' Callilepis schuszteri'' (

Gnaphosidae Ground spiders comprise Gnaphosidae, the seventh largest spider family with over 2,000 described species in over 100 genera distributed worldwide. There are 105 species known to central Europe, and common genera include '' Gnaphosa'', '' Drassode ...

), but the latter has protruding

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 ...

and a silvery carapax.

Taxonomy

''T. quadriguttata'' was originally described as ''Aranea obscura'' by

Walckenaer Baron Charles Athanase Walckenaer (25 December 1771 – 28 April 1852) was a French civil servant, writer, man of letters, and scientist. He was a polymath and wrote extensively on geography, natural history, and literature. Major contributio ...

in 1802. However, this proved to be preoccupied by Olivier, 1789 and Fabricius, 1793. Hahn described the species as ''Theridion 4-guttatum'' in 1833, from which the recent name is derived. There is another species, '' Goeldia obscura'', that has been known by this name.

References

* Bellmann, Heiko (1997). ''Kosmos-Atlas Spinnentiere Europas''. Kosmos. * Michael J. Roberts (1996). ''Collins Field Guide to the Spiders of Britain and Northern Europe''. Collins.

External links

* Frithjof Kohl
Picture of a female ''T. quadriguttata''
* NaturePhoto-CZ

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2172924 Titanoecidae Spiders of Europe Fauna of Moldova Spiders of Russia Spiders described in 1833 Taxa named by Carl Wilhelm Hahn