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Buzzing Spider.
Morphology. The adult spiders 4–7.5 mm long; of medium build; decidedly short-legged, or with legs of medium length (to about twice as long as the body); with eight eyes. The eyes in two horizontal rows of 4; all clear and glassy. The palpal organs of the male of complex structure and enclosed by the specialized, hollowed tarsal segment (the cymbium). Metatarsus IV of the females without a calamistrum. Tarsal claws 2. The tarsi with claw tufts. The abdomen conspicuously patterned dorsally to plain dorsally; conspicuously exhibiting a pair of characteristic, medio-longitudinal irregular dark markings (see illustrations). The tracheal spiracles more or less equidistant from the epigastric furrow and the spinnerets. The abdomen of the females without a cribellum. The reproductive openings of the females associated with an epigyne.
The adults constructing neither a terrestrial silken retreat nor an underwater diving-bell; not making snare-webs; actively pursuing their prey (hunting over foliage of trees and shrubs, rarely found on the ground).
Representation in Britain and Ireland. 1 species in Britain; in the genus Anyphaena (A. accentuata).
Illustrations. • Anyphaena accentuata. Anyphaena accentuata (Walck.): a, female; b, male; c, palpal organs of the male, from below; d, radial joint, from the outer side. From Blackwall (1861).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. The spider families of Britain and Ireland. Version: 5th August 2019. delta-intkey.com’.
