List of spiders of Sri Lanka explained

The following list is of spiders recorded in Sri Lanka, a tropical island situated close to the southern tip of India.

Spiders

Spiders (order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. Anatomically, spiders differ from other arthropods in that the usual body segments are fused into two tagmata, the cephalothorax and abdomen, and joined by a small, cylindrical pedicel. Unlike insects, spiders do not have antennae. In all except the most primitive group, the Mesothelae, spiders have the most centralized nervous systems of all arthropods, as all their ganglia are fused into one mass in the cephalothorax. Unlike most arthropods, spiders have no extensor muscles in their limbs and instead extend them by hydraulic pressure.

, at least 45,700 spider species,[1] and 114 families have been recorded by taxonomists. However, there has been dissension within the scientific community as to how all these families should be classified, as evidenced by the over 20 different classifications that have been proposed since 1900.[2]

When considering the spider diversity in South Asia, which includes India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives, and Sri Lanka, there are not much extensive spider taxonomy has revealed. Only in India, there is a precise catalogue of spiders are documented by arachnologists. All the other South Asian countries, the scientific study is much lesser than that of India. In Sri Lankan spider fauna, most of the articles and publications on spiders were done by Eugène Simon, C. L. Koch in the past and currently by Channa Bambaradeniya, K. B. Ranawana, V. A. M. P. K. Samarawickrama and Ranil P. Nanayakkara.[3] However, most of them were interested on tiger spiders of Sri Lanka - genus Poecilotheria,[4] [5] not much work done in other spider categories.[6]

In 2012 IUCN National Red List of Sri Lanka, much more comprehensive study on spiders and other local fauna had taken place. Afterwards, two books named An introduction to common Spiders of Sri Lanka and Tiger Spiders - Poecilotheria of Sri Lanka by Ranil P. Nanayakkara were published in 2014 and 2013 respectively. Numerous publications and checklists have been made up since then and curiosity about the arachnid fauna arose in the country.[7] [8] [9] Three new jumping spiders were identified in 2016.[10] In 2018, nine new goblin spiders were identified from the country. With that, Sri Lankan goblin spider diversity increased to 45 described species in 13 different genera.[11] In 2019, the genus Phintelloides was identified.[12] Also, a checklist by Manju Siliwal and Sanjay Molur's detailed Checklist of Spiders of South Asia including 2006 revision of Indian spider checklist was published. This checklist provided all the described spider species of South Asia and part of South-East Asia as well.[13] However, this checklist was published in 2007, making it rather outdated. In 2021, eight species of jumping spiders were identified.[14] In 2020, two cellar spiders,[15] and seven species of jumping spiders were described.[16]

The following list provide the spiders currently identified in Sri Lanka. Due to being a very recent checklist, this list will be based on a checklist by Benjamin et al. (2012) among others, with the latest update being made in August 2020. This checklist was made by the Association for Conservation of Environment and Arthropods Sri Lanka, and encompasses a wide variety of referenced journals.

Currently, Sri Lanka has 589 species of spider, belonging to 50 families and 294 genera. Out of these 589 species, 318 are endemic spiders to Sri Lanka with 17 endemic genera.

Endemic species are denoted as E.

- Funnel weavers

Family: Anapidae

- Ground orbweavers

Family: Araneidae

- Orb weavers

Family: Barychelidae

- Brushe-footed trapdoor spiders

Family: Cheiracanthiidae

- Cheiracanth prowling spiders

Family: Clubionidae

- Sac spiders

Family: Corinnidae

- Ant-mimic and ground sac spiders

Family: Ctenidae

- Wandering spiders

Family: Dictynidae

- Mesh web weavers

Family: Dipluridae

- Diplurid funnel-web spiders

Family: Eresidae

- Velvet spiders

Family: Hahniidae

- Dwarf sheet spiders

Family: Hersiliidae

- Tree trunk spiders

Family: Idiopidae

- Armored trapdoor spiders

Family: Linyphiidae

- Sheet web and dwarf spiders

Family: Liocranidae

- Liocranid sac spiders

Family: Lycosidae

- Wolf spiders

Family: Mimetidae

- Pirate spiders

Family: Mysmenidae

- Dwarf cobweb weavers

- WIshbone spiders

Family: Nesticidae

- Scaffold web spiders

Family: Ochyroceratidae

- Midget ground weavers

- Flatmesh weavers

Family: Oonopidae

- Flatmesh weavers

Family: Oxyopidae

- Lynx spiders

Family: Palpimanidae

- Palp-footed spiders

Family: Philodromidae

- Running crab spiders

Family: Pholcidae

- Cellar spiders

Family: Pisauridae

- Nursery web spiders

Family: Psechridae

- Pseudo-orbweavers & Horizontal lace web weavers

Family: Salticidae

- Jumping spiders

Family: Scytodidae

- Spitting spiders

Family: Segestriidae

- Tubeweb spiders

- Wall crab spiders

- Six-eyed brown spiders

Family: Sparassidae

- Huntsman spiders

Family: Stenochilidae

- Stecnochilid assassin spiders

Family: Tetrablemmidae

- Armored spiders

Family: Tetragnathidae

- Long-jawed orb weavers

Family: Theraphosidae

See main article: articles and List of tarantulas of Sri Lanka. - Tarantulas

Family: Theridiidae

- Cobweb spiders

Family: Theridiosomatidae

- Ray spiders

Family: Thomisidae

- Crab spiders

Family: Titanoecidae

- Rock weavers

Family: Trachelidae

- Trachelid ground spiders

Family: Udubidae

- Udubid spiders

Family: Uloboridae

- Cribellate orb weavers

Family: Zodariidae

- Ant spider

Family: Zoropsidae

- False wolf spiders

Notes and References

  1. Web site: NMBE - World Spider Catalog. 2022-01-07. wsc.nmbe.ch.
  2. Book: Foelix, Rainer F.. Biology of Spiders. registration. 1996. Oxford University Press. New York. 0-19-509593-6. 3.
  3. Web site: Fauna of Sri Lanka . https://web.archive.org/web/20140112011837/https://portals.iucn.org/library/efiles/edocs/2006-030.pdf . dead . 12 January 2014 . World Conservation Union in Sri Lanka . 13 March 2016 . Bambaradeniya, Channa .
  4. Web site: Poecilotheria species . Tarantupedia . 3 May 2016.
  5. Web site: New giant tarantula discovered in Sri Lanka . wired.com . 3 May 2016.
  6. Web site: South Indian Spiders . southindianspiders.org . 13 March 2016.
  7. Book: Nanayakkara, Ranil P. . 2014 . Tiger Spiders Poecilotheria of Sri Lanka . Biodiversity Secretariat, Ministry of Environmental & Renewable Energy . Colombo . 167 . 978-955-0033-58-4 .
  8. Web site: Study of the distribution of the genus Poecilotheria in Sri Lanka . Ceylon Journal of Science . 13 March 2016 . Samarawickrama, V. A. M. P. K. . Jayananda, M. D. B. G. . Ranawana, K. B. . Smith, Andrew . amp . 12 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160313201608/http://www.pdn.ac.lk/cjsbs/cjsps/text/text34.7.pdf . 2016-03-13 . dead .
  9. Web site: Giant new kind of tarantula discovered in Sri Lanka . 5 April 2013 . independent.co.uk . 3 May 2016.
  10. Web site: Description of Three New Species of the Tropical Asian Jumping Spider Genus Onomastus Simon, 1900 (Araneae: Salticidae) from High Altitude Cloud Forests of Sri Lanka . 10 December 2016 . Novataxa. 3 February 2019.
  11. Web site: [scroll.in/article/883701/scientists-have-found Scientists have found new spider species in Sri Lanka – and named them after Enid Blyton characters ]. 2021-08-21 . scroll.in.
  12. Web site: Checklist of Spiders of Sri Lanka. 2021-05-01. ASSOCIATION FOR CONSERVATION OF ENVIRONMENT AND ARTHROPODS (ACEA). en.
  13. Web site: Molur, Sanjay. Siliwal, Manju. Checklist of Spiders of South Asia. 47. 13 March 2016.
  14. Web site: Kanesharatnam & Benjamin 2021 Phylogenetic relationships and systematics of the jumping spider genus Colopsus with the description of eight new species from Sri Lanka Araneae . 2021-08-21 . Journal of Natural History 54(43-44):2763-2814.
  15. Xin . Yafei . Yao . Zhiyuan . Li . Shuqiang . 2020-04-06 . Two new species of the spider genus Wanniyala Huber & Benjamin, 2005 (Araneae: Pholcidae) from Sri Lanka . 2021-08-22 . Zootaxa . 4759 . 4 . 566–574 . 10.11646/zootaxa.4759.4.7. 33056897 . 216518544 .
  16. Kanesharatnam . Nilani . Benjamin . Suresh P. . 2020-02-04 . On three new species of jumping spiders of the genera Habrocestum Simon, 1876, Stenaelurillus Simon, 1886 and Tamigalesus Żabka, 1988 (Araneae, Salticidae) from Sri Lanka . 2021-08-22 . Evolutionary Systematics . 4 . 5–19 . 10.3897/evolsyst.4.47578. 213920225 . free .