Psechrus borneo Levi


Psechrus borneo Male 15mm 2015-04-17 KANOWIT, PRAYER MOUNTAIN	Psechrus borneo Female 9mm 2015-6-2 Ng TAU, Sarawak	Psechrus borneo Male 2009-07-12 GUDANG 4	Psechrus borneo Young Female 7mm 2009-07-19 GUDANG 4

Family Psechridae
Psechrus borneo Levi, 1982 — Borneo
婆羅洲縷網蛛

Psechrid Spiders (Family Psechridae)

Large spiders with long legs. They build webs in shrubs, low vegetation or even the lower branches of trees.
both rows of eyes almost straight

The Psechridae are a family of spiders with about 50 species in two extant genera, recently revised by Bayer (2011, 2012).

With body lengths of up to 2 cm and funnel webs more than 1 m in diameter, they are among the biggest cribellate spiders.

Psechrids construct cribellate webs and Fecenia construct webs that are similar to orb webs of Orbiculariae spiders, a remarkable example of evolutionary convergence (Blackledge et al. 2012, Agnarsson et al. 2013).

Psecrhidae spiders are only found in South East Asia, where they occur in forests from lowland to altitudes exceeding 2000m. Female Psechrus carry their egg-sac in the chelicerae, similar to their relatives, the ecribellate Pisauridae.

This is the web of a male Psechrus borneo at Gudang 4.

This male Psechrids spider construct cribellate webs more than 0.5 meter in diameter and 1+- meter height.

Male 2009-07-12 Gudang 4

Psechrus borneo feature several characteristics normally found in ecribellate spiders, for example brood care behavior, and a colulus with no apparent function (Fang et al. 2000).

Family Psechridae
Psechrus borneo Male

17-4-2015 Kanowit

A recent phylogenetic analysis places Psechridae as close relatives to following families:

1- Family Oxyopidae - Lynx spiders
2- Family Lycosidae - wolf spiders
3- Family Pisauridae - nursery web spiders

Psechridae	Oxyopidae	Lycosidae	Pisauridae

Family Araneidae	Family Nephilidae	Family Pholcidae	Tetragnathidae