Kingdom Animalia Class Arachnida Family Hersiliidae Rank Genus | Subphylum Chelicerata Infraorder Araneomorphae Phylum Arthropoda Order Spider | |
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Similar Hersiliola, Hersilia, Tree trunk spider, Hemicloea, Argiope protensa | ||
Tamopsis is a genus of spiders in the family Hersiliidae, found in Australia and New Guinea. Like other members of the family, they may be called two-tailed spiders, referring to two elongated spinnerets.
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Description
Tamopsis species are small to medium-sized spiders. For example, a female of the type species Tamopsis eucalypti has a body about 7 mm long, a male a body about 5 mm long. They resemble other members of the family Hersiliidae in having unusually long posterior lateral spinnerets (the outside rear pair), which in some species can be longer than the abdomen. They live in trees rather than on the ground and do not make complex webs. Their legs are relatively long, with an undivided metatarsus. The chelicerae have three teeth at the front edge. The male palpal bulb has a complex median apophysis (projection), sometimes coiled and usually with a hook-shaped structure at the end. The embolus of the palpal bulb can slide out of a lateral apophysis, which otherwise partly or completely hides it. The female has one to three seminal receptacles on each side.
Taxonomy
In 1987, Barbara Baehr and Martin Baehr reviewed the Australian members of the family Hersiliidae. They erected a new genus Tamopsis, and described 25 new species within the genus. Two species formerly placed in the genus Tama were transferred to Tamopsis. In a further series of papers from 1988 to 1998, more species were described. Another species was described by Rheims and Brescovit in 2004. Of the total of 50 accepted species as of April 2016, two were described before Baehr and Baehr, 47 by them, and 1 subsequently. Two remaining Australian species included in Tama, T. novaehollandiae and T. brachyura, are regarded as doubtful: the type specimens are either juveniles or have been lost, and the species are not identifiable from their initial descriptions.
The name Tamopsis means "like Tama"; -opsis, from the Greek ὄψις, here means "resembling". Tamopsis differs from Tama in the more complex structure of the male palpal bulb, and in particular its median apophysis, which may be coiled or have a hook- or spoon-shaped structure at the tip. Species included in Tama in 1987 also differ in being terrestrial, whereas the Australian species are generally arboreal.
Species
As of April 2016, the World Spider Catalog accepted the following species: