Paraplectana
Genus of spiders
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Paraplectana is a genus of Asian and African orb-weaver spiders first described by F. de Brito Capello in 1867.[2]
| Paraplectana | |
|---|---|
| |
| Female P. tsushimensis | |
 | |
| P. thorntoni | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae |
| Infraorder: | Araneomorphae |
| Family: | Araneidae |
| Subfamily: | Cyrtarachninae s.l. |
| Genus: | Paraplectana Brito Capello, 1867[1] |
| Type species | |
| P. thorntoni (Blackwall, 1865) | |
| Species | |
|
13, see text | |
Description
Paraplectana sp. from South Africa
Paraplectana is distinguished by its round body and bright colour. Total length is 11–16 mm in females. In contrast with the uniformly pale brown carapace, the abdomen is shiny with bright red, yellow or orange patches on a dark background, resembling a ladybird beetle. The round abdomen almost completely covers the carapace. Their thin legs are arranged around the carapace.[3]
Males are still unknown for the genus.[3]
Species
P. rajashree from India
As of September 2025[update], this genus includes thirteen species:[1]
- Paraplectana coccinella (Thorell, 1890) – Myanmar, Indonesia (Nias Is.)
- Paraplectana duodecimmaculata Simon, 1897 – Indonesia (Java)
- Paraplectana gravelyi (Tikader, 1961) – India
- Paraplectana hemisphaerica (C. L. Koch, 1844) – Sierra Leone
- Paraplectana kittenbergeri Caporiacco, 1947 – Tanzania
- Paraplectana magnaculata Lin & Li, 2022 – China
- Paraplectana mamoniae Basumatary & Brahma, 2019 – India, China
- Paraplectana multimaculata Thorell, 1899 – Cameroon, East Africa
- Paraplectana rajashree Ahmed, Sumukha, Khalap, Mohan & Jadhav, 2015 – India
- Paraplectana sakaguchii Uyemura, 1938 – China, Korea, Japan
- Paraplectana thorntoni (Blackwall, 1865) – Africa, Madagascar, Yemen (type species)
- Paraplectana tsushimensis Yamaguchi, 1960 – China, Taiwan, Japan
- Paraplectana walleri (Blackwall, 1865) – West, Central, Southern Africa, Madagascar
