''Zearchaea clypeata'' is a species of

Mecysmaucheniidae Mecysmaucheniidae is a family of araneomorph spiders first described by Eugène Simon in 1895. Most genera occur in South America (Chile and Argentina), with two genera endemic to New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the ...

spider that is endemic to

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

Taxonomy

This species was described in 1946 by Cecil Louis Wilton from female and male specimens collected in

Masterton Masterton () is a large town in the Wellington Region, Greater Wellington Region of New Zealand that operates as the seat of the Masterton District (a territorial authority or local-government district). It is the largest town in the Wairarapa ...

. It was then later redescribed in 1955. The holotype is stored in

Te Papa Museum The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. Usually known as Te Papa (Māori for ' the treasure box'), it opened in 1998 after the merging of the National Museum of New Zealand an ...

under registration number AS.000017.

Description

The female is recorded at 2.2mm in length whereas the male is 1.5mm. This species has an orange brown cephalothorax and a creamy grey abdomen.

Distribution

This species is only known from scattered localities in the

North Island The North Island ( , 'the fish of Māui', historically New Ulster) is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but less populous South Island by Cook Strait. With an area of , it is the List ...

and the

South Island The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by ...

of New Zealand.

Conservation status

Under the

New Zealand Threat Classification System The New Zealand Threat Classification System is used by the Department of Conservation to assess conservation priorities of species in New Zealand. The system was developed because the IUCN Red List, a similar conservation status system, had s ...

, this species is listed as "Not Threatened".

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4179608 Mecysmaucheniidae Endemic spiders of New Zealand Spiders described in 1946