Kapitia Explained

Kapitia is a genus of spiders in the family Oonopidae. It was first described in 1956 by Forster., it contains only one species, Kapitia obscura.^[1]

Taxonomy

This species was described in 1956 by Ray Forster from male and female specimens collected on Kapiti Island.^[2] It was redescribed in 2012.^[3] The holotype is stored at Canterbury Museum.It is the only oonopid spider in New Zealand.

Description

This male is recorded at 1.26mm in length. The carapace, legs and abdomen are yellow coloured. The female is slightly larger at 1.63mm in length.

Distribution

This species is known from scattered locations throughout the North Island of New Zealand, including Three Kings Islands.

Conservation status

Under the New Zealand Threat Classification System, this species is listed as "Not Threatened" with the qualifiers of "Data Poor: Size", "Data Poor: Trend" and "Biologically Sparse".^[4]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Oonopidae. World Spider Catalog. Natural History Museum Bern. 2017-03-27.
2. Forster . Ray . 1956 . New Zealand spiders of the family Oonopidae . Records of the Canterbury Museum . 7 . 89-169.
3. Platnick . Norman I. . Abrahim . Naiara . Álvarez-Padilla . Fernando . Andriamalala . Daniela . Baehr . Barbara C. . Baert . Léon . Bonaldo . Alexandre B. . Brescovit . Antonio D. . Chousou-Polydouri . Natalia . Dupérré . Nadine . Eichenberger . Beata . Fannes . Wouter . Gaublomme . Eva . Gillespie . Rosemary G. . Grismado . Cristian J. . 2012 . Tarsal Organ Morphology and the Phylogeny of Goblin Spiders (Araneae, Oonopidae), with Notes on Basal Genera . American Museum Novitates . en . 3736 . 3736 . 1–52 . 10.1206/3736.2 . 0003-0082.
4. Sirvid . P. J. . Vink . C. J. . Fitzgerald . B. M. . Wakelin . M. D. . Rolfe . J. . Michel . P. . 2020-01-01 . Conservation status of New Zealand Araneae (spiders), 2020 . New Zealand Threat Classification Series . English . 34 . 1–37.