Extended maternal care is considered a prerequisite for the evolution of permanent family grouping and eusociality in invertebrates. In spiders, the essential evolutionary transitions to permanent sociality along this ‘subsocial route’ include the extension of care beyond hatching, the persistence of offspring groups to maturation and the elimination of premating dispersal. Subsocial Australian...

Sit-and-wait predators have evolved several traits that increase the probability of encountering prey, including lures that attract prey. Although most crab spiders (Thomisidae) are known by their ability to change colour in order to match the background, a few use a different strategy. They are UV-reflective, creating a colour contrast against UV-absorbing flowers that is attractive for pollin...

The types of nine Xysticus species described by Schenkel (1963) from China and Mongolia are revised. Comments on all 16 species described by Schenkel in 1963 are provided. Three species are synonymised with Xysticus davidi Schenkel, 1963: X. excavatus Schenkel, 1963, syn. n., X. hotingchiehi Schenkel, 1963, syn. n., X. pentagonius Seyfulina & Mikhailov, 2004, syn. n. Xysticus fagei Schenkel 196...

A short investigation was devised by Department of Agricultural Entomology, Tamil Nadu University, Coimbatore in 2022 to document the arthropod composition sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) ecosystem. Arthropod fauna collected from ecosystem farmers’ field at Puthur district, weekly intervals. Totally, 2,310 individuals subclass Pterygota were and among them most specimens belonged Exopteryg...

The males of Tobias caudatus Mello-Leitão, 1929 and Tobias pustulosus Simon, 1929 are described for the first time, females are redescribed and both sexes are illustrated. New distribution records are presented for both species. Tobias monstruosus Mello-Leitão, 1929 is considered a junior synonym of T. pustulosus. The types of Tobias albovittatus Caporiacco, 1954, and Tobias gradiens Mello-Leit...

The genus Ozyptila Simon, 1864 contains 107 catalogued species distributed mainly in the Holarctic region (Platnick 2013). This genus has traditionally been regarded as a group of small ground-living thomisids with clavate setae related to Xysticus (Lehtinen 2002). Ten species were recorded from China (Song & Zhu, 1997; Platnick 2013). Species of Ozyptila can be distinguished from those of Xyst...

According to current catalogues, two species are allocated to the genus Parastephanops F. O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1900. The examination of the type of Parastephanops cognatus (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1892) (type-species of Parastephanops) has revealed the presence of a high cephalic region, legs with dark metatarsus and apex of tibia, and triangular epigynum with median ridge, all diagnostic featur...