Stephanopis altifrons

Stephanopis altifrons is a crab spider found in Australia. A cryptic species often hidden on bark of a tree. The body length of the female is up to 10 mm, the male 6 mm. The colour is usually brown, or shades of grey, sometimes black. The egg sac is 7.5 mm in diameter. Often placed in a crevice in tree bark; irregular in shape and camouflaged with debris. Eggs are off white in colour, 25 to 30 in number. The female rests with the eggs. The food of this spider is appears to be other spiders. Recorded prey include spiders in the families Salticidae and Hersiliidae.[1][2][3][4]

Knobbly Crab Spider
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Arachnida
Order:
Araneae
Family:
Thomisidae
Genus:
Stephanopis
Species:
S. altifrons
Binomial name
Stephanopis altifrons
Synonyms

  • Stephanopis monticola Bradley, 1871: 234 (synonymized by Machado, Teixeira & Milledge, 2019: 224)
    • Type locality: Tia, New South Wales, Australia.
      • Holotype: female ♀. OUMNH 619.
  • Stephanopis depressa Bradley, 1871: 236 (synonymized by Machado, Teixeira & Milledge, 2019: 224)
    • Type locality: Cape York, Queensland, Australia.
      • Holotype: female ♀. OUMNH 555.
  • Stephanopis elongata Bradley, 1871: 236 (synonymized by Machado, Teixeira & Milledge, 2019: 224)
    • Type locality: Cape York, Queensland, Australia.
      • Syntypes: 1 adult male ♂ and 1 juvenile. OUMNH 551
  • Stephanopis scabra Koch, 1874: 505 (synonymized by Machado, Teixeira & Milledge, 2019: 224)
    • Type locality: Sydney [33°52'S 151°12'E, New South Wales, Australia]
      • Syntypes: 2 adult females ♀. ZMB 3411.
    •
  • Stephanopis aspera Rainbow, 1893: 471 (synonymized by Machado, Teixeira & Milledge, 2019: 224)
    • Type locality: Wombeyan Karst Conservation Reserve [34°18'S 149°57'E, New South Wales, Australia]
      • Cotype: . female ♀. AMS KS.6681.

According to Pickard-Cambridge, the single specimen used for the description of S. altifrons was dry-pinned. Therefore the specimen could not be properly examined, so it was not possible to determine if the specimen was adult. Moreover, he states his own sketch of the spider as “hasty”. This may explain why the somatic characters were inadequately described, genitalic features were not mentioned at all, and the illustrations were not detailed enough, making the species unidentifiable.[5]

See also

References
  1. "Stephanopis altifrons". Atlas of Living Australia. Retrieved February 4, 2020.
  2. "Stephanopis altifrons". Arachne.org. Retrieved February 4, 2020.
  3. Densey Clyne. A Guide to Australian Spiders. 1969. Thomas Nelson Australia AUS 68-595 SBN 17 004724 page 59-60 & 107
  4. Australian Spiders in Colour - Ramon Mascord. 1970 SBN 589 07065 7, page 54
  5. Machado, M., Teixeira, R. A., & Milledge, G. A. (2019). “On the Australian bark crab spider genus Stephanopis: taxonomic review and description of seven new species (Araneae: Thomisidae: Stephanopinae).” Records of the Australian Museum, 71(6), 217–276.


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