Harpactea is a genus of 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...

s from the family Dysderidae

Dysderidae

The family Dysderidae are araneomorph spiders found primarily in Eurasia, although extending into North Africa, with very few species occurring in South America, and one introduced into many regions of the world.Dysderids have six eyes, and are haplogyne, i.e...

, with more than 150 described species.

Harpactea species are non-web building predators that forage on the ground and on tree trunks at night, mainly in xerothermic forests. At day, they hide in silk retreats they build under rocks or bark.

Description

Like all species in the family Dysderidae, Harpactea has six eyes. The type species

Type species

In biological nomenclature, a type species is both a concept and a practical system which is used in the classification and nomenclature of animals and plants. The value of a "type species" lies in the fact that it makes clear what is meant by a particular genus name. A type species is the species...

, H. hombergi, is very similar in both sexes and reaches a body length of about 6 mm. The female has no epigyne

Epigyne

The epigyne or epigynum is the external genital structure of female spiders. As the epigyne varies greatly in form in different species, even in closely related ones, it often provides the most distinctive characteristic for recognizing species...

.

Habits

As opposed to the related genus Dysdera, where at least some species specialize on hunting woodlice, most Harpactea feed on insects. At least H. rubicunda also hunts other spiders, for example Drassodes

Drassodes

Drassodes is a spider genus in the family Gnaphosidae. They can reach a length of about 20mm; the brownish spiders live under rocks or bark in mostly dry habitats.-References: : , version 8.0. American Museum of Natural History....

. Like most Dysderidae, all members of this genus are nocturnal.

H. sadistica

Harpactea sadistica

Harpactea sadistica is a species of dysderine spider, found only in Israel. It was first described in 2008.-Description:Both sexes have the same body characteristics. The length of the pale yellow-brown, smooth carapace ranges from 1.1 to 1.7 mm. The legs are pale yellow, with the first two...

, first described in 2008, was found to directly insert its sperm into the body cavity of females, using specialized organs acting like a hypodermic needle

Hypodermic needle

A hypodermic needle is a hollow needle commonly used with a syringe to inject substances into the body or extract fluids from it...

. This behavior, known as traumatic insemination

Traumatic insemination

Traumatic insemination, also known as hypodermic insemination, is the mating practice in some species of invertebrates in which the male pierces the female's abdomen with his penis and injects his sperm through the wound into her abdominal cavity . The sperm diffuse through the female's hemolymph,...

, is known from other arthropods, but has never been observed in spiders.

Distribution

The distribution of the genus ranges from Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 and Northern Africa to Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan , formerly also known as Turkmenia is one of the Turkic states in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic . Turkmenistan is one of the six independent Turkic states...

 and Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

. Almost all species appear to be endemic to small regions of the Mediterranean.

However, H. hombergi is rather widespread, reaching from the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 to the Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

. It is the only member of its genus that occurs in Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

.

Further reading

(2006): Taxonomic revision of the epigean representatives of the spider subfamily Harpacteinae (Araneae: Dysderidae) on the island of Crete

Crete

Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...

. Zootaxa 1169: 1-32. Abstract

External links

• YouTube: Mating of H. sadistica: Video
• Uni Bonn: Diagnostic photographs of Harpactea
• The Essex Field Club: Picture of H. rubicunda
• Picture of H. hombergi