Damastes (spider) explained

Damastes is a genus of East African huntsman spiders that was first described by Eugène Louis Simon in 1880.^[1] It is classified under the family Sparassidae, though its subfamilial classification remains unclear.^{[2] [3]} The subspecies Damastes coquereli affinis is a nomen dubium.^[4]

Species

it contains sixteen species, found on the Seychelles, in Mozambique, and on Madagascar:^[5]

• Damastes atrignathus Strand, 1908 – Madagascar
• Damastes coquereli Simon, 1880 – Madagascar
• Damastes decoratus (Simon, 1897) – Madagascar
• Damastes fasciolatus (Simon, 1903) – Madagascar
• Damastes flavomaculatus Simon, 1880 – Madagascar
• Damastes grandidieri Simon, 1880 (type) – Madagascar
• Damastes majungensis Strand, 1907 – Madagascar
• Damastes malagassus (Fage, 1926) – Madagascar
• Damastes malagasus (Karsch, 1881) – Madagascar
• Damastes masculinus Strand, 1908 – Madagascar
• Damastes nigrichelis (Strand, 1907) – Mozambique
• Damastes nossibeensis Strand, 1907 – Madagascar
• Damastes oswaldi Lenz, 1891 – Madagascar
• Damastes pallidus (Schenkel, 1937) – Madagascar
• Damastes sikoranus Strand, 1906 – Madagascar
• Damastes validus (Blackwall, 1877) – Seychelles

Trapping prey

An unspecified Damastes species has been observed in the Sava Region of northeast Madagascar predating on vertebrates (frogs, Heterixalus andrakata). The same spider - and others of the same species - also build structures of leaves and silk and hide in the back of them. It is speculated that these are traps for catching these frogs.

See also

• List of Sparassidae species

Notes and References

1. Simon. E.. 1880. Révision de la famille des Sparassidae (Arachnides). Actes de la Société Linnéenne de Bordeaux. 223–351. 34. Eugène_Simon.
2. Peter Jäger. 2002. Heteropodinae: Transfers and Synonymies (Arachnida: Araneae: Sparassidae. Acta Arachnologica. 51. 1. 33 - 61. 10.2476/asjaa.51.33. free.
3. Peter Jäger . 1997 . First results of a taxonomic revision of the SE Asian Sparassidae (Araneae) . Proceedings of the 17th European Colloquium of Arachnology, Edinburgh 1997 . 53 - 59 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120426055523/http://www.european-arachnology.org/proceedings/17th/6Jager.pdf . 2012-04-26 .
4. Strand. E.. 1907. Diagnosen neuer Spinnen aus Madagaskar und Sansibar. Zoologischer Anzeiger. 31. 725–748. Embrik_Strand.
5. Gen. Damastes Simon, 1880. World Spider Catalog Version 20.0. 2019-10-13. 2019. Natural History Museum Bern. 10.24436/2.