Cyrba
Encyclopedia
Cyrba is a genus
of the spider
family Salticidae (jumping spiders)
.
is long and moderately high. The eyes are lateral. The abdomen
is long with bright colorful patterns. Their legs are thin and slender. The genus has been described as primitive because of their pervasive use of web
s, large posterior median
eyes, and the secretory organs on the femora of males. These characteristics were lost by advanced salticids. The genus are also almost wholly dependent on their vision
. The primary mating season for the spider C. algerina is May. Juveniles emerge in July, grow to about half the adult size by winter, and then grow to adult size in the spring of the following year. The genus is commonly found on very rocky ground under rocks, or less often walking around on the ground or on the tops of rocks.
on which to moult
. Cyrba makes an egg sac by spinning a thick silk
sheet on the side of a rock, and then ovipositing the eggs in the center, covering them with another layer of silk. The egg sacs have clusters of white spots. Cyrba spiders generally stay with their eggs until they hatch. In a laboratory, they do not spin silk for moulting or resting.
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of the spider
Spider
Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...
family Salticidae (jumping spiders)
Jumping spider
The jumping spider family contains more than 500 described genera and about 5,000 described species, making it the largest family of spiders with about 13% of all species. Jumping spiders have some of the best vision among invertebrates and use it in courtship, hunting and navigation...
.
Description
Cyrba spiders are small to medium size spiders that are usually brightly colored. Their cephalothoraxCephalothorax
The cephalothorax is a tagma of various arthropods, comprising the head and the thorax fused together, as distinct from the abdomen behind. The word cephalothorax is derived from the Greek words for head and thorax...
is long and moderately high. The eyes are lateral. The abdomen
Abdomen
In vertebrates such as mammals the abdomen constitutes the part of the body between the thorax and pelvis. The region enclosed by the abdomen is termed the abdominal cavity...
is long with bright colorful patterns. Their legs are thin and slender. The genus has been described as primitive because of their pervasive use of web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
s, large posterior median
Median
In probability theory and statistics, a median is described as the numerical value separating the higher half of a sample, a population, or a probability distribution, from the lower half. The median of a finite list of numbers can be found by arranging all the observations from lowest value to...
eyes, and the secretory organs on the femora of males. These characteristics were lost by advanced salticids. The genus are also almost wholly dependent on their vision
Visual perception
Visual perception is the ability to interpret information and surroundings from the effects of visible light reaching the eye. The resulting perception is also known as eyesight, sight, or vision...
. The primary mating season for the spider C. algerina is May. Juveniles emerge in July, grow to about half the adult size by winter, and then grow to adult size in the spring of the following year. The genus is commonly found on very rocky ground under rocks, or less often walking around on the ground or on the tops of rocks.
Silk and eggs
The spider spins silkSilk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
on which to moult
Moult
In biology, moulting or molting , also known as sloughing, shedding, or for some species, ecdysis, is the manner in which an animal routinely casts off a part of its body , either at specific times of year, or at specific points in its life cycle.Moulting can involve the epidermis , pelage...
. Cyrba makes an egg sac by spinning a thick silk
Silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
sheet on the side of a rock, and then ovipositing the eggs in the center, covering them with another layer of silk. The egg sacs have clusters of white spots. Cyrba spiders generally stay with their eggs until they hatch. In a laboratory, they do not spin silk for moulting or resting.
Diet
Spiders in this genus feed on other spiders. They also feed on any insect that is caught in their silk. In a laboratory test to see if Cyrba spiders would attack other salticids, they did not. The spider C. algerina is the only spider in the genus that is known to hunt at night.Species
- Cyrba algerina (Lucas, 1846) — Canary IslandsCanary IslandsThe Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
to Central AsiaCentral AsiaCentral Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north... - Cyrba armata Wesolowska, 2006 — South AfricaSouth AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
- Cyrba armillata Peckham & PeckhamGeorge and Elizabeth PeckhamGeorge Williams Peckham and Elizabeth Maria Gifford Peckham were early American teachers, taxonomists, ethologists, arachnologists, and entomologists, specializing in animal behavior and in the study of jumping spiders and wasps.-Lives and careers:George Peckham was born in Albany,...
, 1907 — BorneoBorneoBorneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia.... - Cyrba bidentata StrandEmbrik StrandEmbrik Strand was an arachnologist who classified many insect and spider species, including the greenbottle blue tarantula....
, 1906 — EthiopiaEthiopiaEthiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2... - Cyrba boveyi Lessert, 1933 — Central AfricaCentral AfricaCentral Africa is a core region of the African continent which includes Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda....
- Cyrba dotata Peckham & Peckham, 1903 — South Africa
- Cyrba legendrei Wanless, 1984 — MadagascarMadagascarThe Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
, Comoro IslandsComoro IslandsThe Comoros Islands form an archipelago of volcanic islands situated off the south-east coast of Africa, to the east of Mozambique and north-west of Madagascar. They are divided between the sovereign state of Comoros and the French overseas department of Mayotte... - Cyrba lineata Wanless, 1984 — South Africa
- Cyrba nigrimana Simon, 1900 — South, East AfricaEast AfricaEast Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
- Cyrba ocellata (Kroneberg, 1875) — SomaliaSomaliaSomalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...
, SudanSudanSudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
to ChinaChinaChinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area... - Cyrba simoni Wijesinghe, 1993 — Tropical Africa
- Cyrba szechenyii KarschFriedrich KarschFerdinand Karsch or Karsch-Haack was a German arachnologist, entomologist and anthropologist....
, 1898 — Hong KongHong KongHong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...