Maimuna (spider)
| Maimuna | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Maimuna vestita male | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae |
| Infraorder: | Araneomorphae |
| Family: | Agelenidae |
| Subfamily: | Ageleninae |
| Genus: | Maimuna Lehtinen, 1967 |
| Type species | |
| Textrix vestita C. L. Koch, 1841 | |
Maimuna is a Western Palaearctic genus of medium-sized spiders in the family Agelenidae, members of which are commonly known as funnel weavers. The genus is distributed in the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions, with records from southern and eastern Europe, Anatolia, and the Levant.[1][2] Nine species are currently accepted in the genus.[1]
Taxonomy
Maimuna was described by Pekka T. Lehtinen in 1967, with Textrix vestita C. L. Koch, 1841 as its type species.[1][3] The generic name is apparently an arbitrary combination of letters.[2]
Several species now placed in Maimuna were originally described in Textrix.[1][2] The original description of the genus summarised its diagnostic characters in a table rather than in a separate prose diagnosis.[4] The genus has since been revised or reviewed in regional studies of the fauna of Israel and Turkey.[2][4][5]
Maimuna deserticola, formerly included in the genus, is now placed in Afrotrix, while Maimuna libanica is treated as a synonym of Maimuna bovierlapierrei.[1]
Description
Species of Maimuna resemble related agelenid spiders in general body form and eye arrangement.[2] The posterior median eyes are larger than the anterior lateral eyes, while the other eye pairs are smaller and approximately equal in size. The clypeus is high, and the chelicerae have three promarginal and two retromarginal teeth.[2]
The genus is distinguished especially by characters of the male palp. The male palpal femur is distally concave on one side and has a step-like prominence on the other side. The patella is smooth, the tibia is only slightly furrowed ventrally, and the embolus is fine and filamentous.[2] The modified male palpal femur and the form of the elaborate palpal sclerites are regarded as the main characters separating Maimuna from related genera. Females are less consistently separable from related genera, but the epigynal plate has a large central depression, bordered anteriorly and with raised lateral hoods.[2]
Species and distribution
The genus extends from the Balkans to Crimea and southwards to Israel.[2] Turkey is one of the better documented parts of the range, and two new species, Maimuna anatolica from Muğla Province and Maimuna antalyensis from Antalya Province, were described after the Turkish species were reviewed.[4][5]
The following species are accepted in the genus:[1]
| Scientific name | Distribution |
|---|---|
| Maimuna anatolica Dimitrov, 2022 |
Turkey |
| Maimuna antalyensis Zamani, Kaya & Marusik, 2024 |
Turkey |
| Maimuna bovierlapierrei (Kulczyński, 1911) |
Lebanon and Israel |
| Maimuna cariae Brignoli, 1978 |
Turkey |
| Maimuna carmelica Levy, 1996 |
Israel |
| Maimuna cretica (Kulczyński, 1903) |
Greece, including Crete |
| Maimuna inornata (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1872) |
Greece, Syria and Israel |
| Maimuna meronis Levy, 1996 |
Israel |
| Maimuna vestita (C. L. Koch, 1841) |
Italy, Croatia, Romania, Ukraine, Albania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey |
Ecology
Published ecological information on the genus primarily concerns Maimuna vestita.[6][7][8]
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Maimuna Lehtinen, 1967". World Spider Catalog. Natural History Museum Bern. Retrieved 6 July 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Levy, Gershom (1996). "The agelenid funnel-weaver family and the spider genus Cedicus in Israel (Araneae, Agelenidae and Cybaeidae)" (PDF). Zoologica Scripta. 25 (2): 85–122. doi:10.1111/j.1463-6409.1996.tb00154.x. Retrieved 6 July 2026.
- ↑ Lehtinen, Pekka T. (1967). "Classification of the cribellate spiders and some allied families, with notes on the evolution of the suborder Araneomorpha". Annales Zoologici Fennici. 4: 199–468. Retrieved 6 July 2026.
- 1 2 3 Dimitrov, Dragomir (2022). "A review of the genus Maimuna Lehtinen, 1967 (Araneae, Agelenidae) in Turkey, with a description of a new species". Zootaxa. 5124 (3): 383–390. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.5124.3.7. Retrieved 6 July 2026.
- 1 2 Zamani, Alireza; Kaya, Rahşen S.; Marusik, Yuri M. (2024). "New taxonomic and faunistic data on the funnel-weavers (Araneae, Agelenidae) of Turkiye and the Caucasus, with five new species". ZooKeys. 1218: 251–286. doi:10.3897/zookeys.1218.135249. PMC 11605302. Retrieved 6 July 2026.
- ↑ Kaya, Rahşen S.; Uğurtaş, İsmail Hakkı (2007). "A faunistic study on spiders (Araneae) of Terzioğlu Island (Uluabat Lake, Bursa)". Journal of Biological and Environmental Sciences. 1 (1): 31–36. Retrieved 6 July 2026.
- ↑ Çetin, Cemal Çağrı; Turantepe, Ergin; Gürbüz, Mehmet Faruk (2021). "Arthropoda fauna of Zindan Cave (Isparta, Turkey) with notes on new records and some ecological characteristics". Turkish Journal of Entomology. 45 (2): 229–243. doi:10.16970/entoted.889779. Retrieved 6 July 2026.
- ↑ Yiğit Kayhan, Nazife; Çorak Öcal, İlkay; Akdeniz, Kader (2025). "Web Structure and Silk Spinning Apparatus Morphology of the Spider Maimuna vestita (Araneae: Agelenidae)". Turkish Journal of Agriculture - Food Science and Technology. 13 (s2): 3525–3528. doi:10.24925/turjaf.v13is2.3525-3528.8107. Retrieved 6 July 2026.