Achaearanea is a genus of spiders in the Theridiidae (tangle web spider) family.

Taxonomy

This genus used to include the extremely abundant common house spider, which was transferred to genus Parasteatoda in 2006, together with many other species. A. veruculata and many more species were moved to genus Cryptachaea in 2008. Others were moved to the revived Henziectypus. The genus was thus reduced from about 150 species to about 30 species during major revisions.^[1] Possibly even more species should be transferred to other genera.^[2]

Description

This genus includes small and large theridiids. The legs are medium long, with spines and usually many hairs. Their web is an irregular network of threads, usually in a sheltered place.^[3]

Distribution

Species are found around the world, with several species from South America, China and Korea, India, Australia and Africa. Some species are endemic to several small islands.^[1]

Species

• Achaearanea alboinsignita Locket, 1980 — Comoro Islands
• Achaearanea blattea (Urquhart, 1886) — New Zealand
• Achaearanea budana Tikader, 1970 — India
• Achaearanea dalana Buckup & Marques, 1991 — Brazil
• Achaearanea dea Buckup & Marques, 2006 — Brazil
• Achaearanea digitus Buckup & Marques, 2006 — Brazil
• Achaearanea diglipuriensis Tikader, 1977 — Andaman Islands
• Achaearanea disparata Denis, 1965 — Gabon, Ivory Coast
• Achaearanea diversipes (Rainbow, 1920) — Norfolk, Lord Howe Islands
• Achaearanea dubitabilis Wunderlich, 1987 — Canary Islands
• Achaearanea durgae Tikader, 1970 — India
• Achaearanea epicosma (Rainbow, 1920) — Lord Howe Islands
• Achaearanea extrilida (Keyserling, 1890) — Australia, Norfolk, Lord Howe Islands
• Achaearanea extumida Xing, Gao & Zhu, 1994 — China
• Achaearanea globispira Henschel & Jocqué, 1994 — South Africa
• Achaearanea hieroglyphica (Mello-Leitão, 1940) — Brazil, French Guiana, Peru
• Achaearanea inopinata Brignoli, 1972 — Venezuela
• Achaearanea machaera Levi, 1959 — Panama
• Achaearanea maricaoensis (Bryant, 1942) — Panama, Puerto Rico
• Achaearanea micratula (Banks, 1909) — Costa Rica
• Achaearanea nigrodecorata (Rainbow, 1920) — Lord Howe Islands
• Achaearanea nigrovittata (Keyserling, 1884) — Mexico to Paraguay
• Achaearanea palgongensis Seo, 1993 — Korea
• Achaearanea propera (Keyserling, 1890) — New South Wales, Tasmania, Lord Howe Islands
• Achaearanea septemguttata (Simon, 1909) — Vietnam
• Achaearanea simaoica Zhu, 1998 — China
• Achaearanea taim Buckup & Marques, 2006 — Brazil
• Achaearanea tingo Levi, 1963 — Peru
• Achaearanea trapezoidalis (Taczanowski, 1873) — Panama to Paraguay
• Achaearanea triangularis Patel, 2005 — India
• Achaearanea triguttata (Keyserling, 1891) — Brazil

Notes

References

• Fitch, Henry S. (1963): Spiders of The University of Kansas Natural History Reservation and Rockefeller Experimental Tract.
• Yoshida, Hajime (2008): A revision of the genus Achaearanea (Araneae: Theridiidae). Acta Arachnologica 57(1): 37-40. PDF
• Platnick, Norman I. (2009): The world spider catalog, version 9.5. American Museum of Natural History.

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