Taczanowskia

Taczanowskia
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Infraorder: Araneomorphae
Family: Araneidae
Subfamily: Cyrtarachninae s.l.
Genus: Taczanowskia
Keyserling, 1879[1]
Type species
T. striata
Keyserling, 1879
Species

5, see text

Taczanowskia is a genus of orb-weaver spiders first described by Eugen von Keyserling in 1879.[2] Contrary to the common name of the family, spiders of the genus Taczanowskia do not build webs and are furtive hunters, deceiving their prey by producing sex pheromones that attract male moths, and catching their prey by using a pair of enlarged claws at the tip of their anterior legs.[3][4][5][6]

In August 2025, a new species, T. waska was discovered in Ecuador. It mimics the appearance of a spider attacked by Gibellula, a genus of parasitic fungus. It was confirmed a new species in March 2026.[7][8][9]

Species

As of March 2026 it contains eight species from South America and Mexico:[1]

  • Taczanowskia gustavoi Ibarra-Núñez, 2013 – Mexico[10]
  • Taczanowskia mirabilis Simon, 1897 – Bolivia, Brazil
  • Taczanowskia onowoka Jordán, Domínguez-Trujillo, & Cisneros-Heredia, 2021 – Ecuador[11]
  • Taczanowskia sextuberculata Keyserling, 1892 – Colombia, Brazil
  • Taczanowskia striata Keyserling, 1879 (type) – Peru, Brazil, Argentina
  • Taczanowskia trilobata Simon, 1897 – Brazil
  • Taczanowskia waska Díaz-Guevara, Bentley, and Dupérré, 2026 - Ecuador, Bolivia[12]
  • Taczanowskia yasuni Díaz-Guevara, Macías-Tulcán & Galvis, 2024 – Ecuador

References

  1. 1 2 Gloor, Daniel; Nentwig, Wolfgang; Blick, Theo; Kropf, Christian (2021). "Gen. Taczanowskia Keyserling, 1879". World Spider Catalog Version. Natural History Museum Bern. doi:10.24436/2. Retrieved 2026-03-28.
  2. ↑ Keyserling, E. (1879). "Neue Spinnen aus Amerika". Verhandlungen der Kaiserlich-Königlichen Zoologisch-Botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien. 29: 293–349.
  3. ↑ Eberhard, William G. (1980-01-01). "The Natural History and Behavior of the Bolas Spider Mastophora Dizzydeani SP. n. (Araneidae)". Psyche: A Journal of Entomology. 87 (3–4): 143–169. doi:10.1155/1980/81062. ISSN 0033-2615.
  4. ↑ Yeargan, K V (January 1994). "Biology of Bolas Spiders". Annual Review of Entomology. 39 (1): 81–99. doi:10.1146/annurev.en.39.010194.000501. ISSN 0066-4170.
  5. ↑ Eberhard, W. G. (1981). "Notes on the natural history of Taczanowskia sp. (Araneae: Araneidae)". Bulletin of the British Arachnological Society. 5: 175–176.
  6. ↑ Scharff, Nikolaj; Coddington, Jonathan A.; Blackledge, Todd A.; Agnarsson, Ingi; Framenau, Volker W.; Szűts, Tamás; Hayashi, Cheryl Y.; Dimitrov, Dimitar (February 2020). "Phylogeny of the orb-weaving spider family Araneidae (Araneae: Araneoidea)". Cladistics. 36 (1): 1–21. doi:10.1111/cla.12382. hdl:1956/22200. ISSN 0748-3007. PMID 34618955. S2CID 149824795.
  7. ↑ "'The Last of Us' on Eight Legs". New York Times.
  8. ↑ ""The Cordyceps spider": Taczanowskia waska sp. nov. (Araneae: Araneidae), a new spider species and a novel case of mimicry of an araneopathogenic fungus (Cordycipitaceae: Gibellula)". Zootaxa.
  9. ↑ "The Nature Notice: March 2026". INaturalist.
  10. ↑ Ibarra-Núñez, Guillermo (2013-05-23). "A new species of the spider genus Taczanowskia (Araneae, Araneidae) from Mexico". Zootaxa. 3664 (1): 57–62. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3664.1.3. ISSN 1175-5334. PMID 26266285.
  11. ↑ Jordán, Juan Pablo; Domínguez-Trujillo, Mariela; Cisneros-Heredia, Diego F. (2021). "Phylogenetic placement of the spider genus Taczanowskia (Araneae:Araneidae) and description of a new species from Ecuador". Invertebrate Systematics. 35 (7): 742. doi:10.1071/IS20084. ISSN 1445-5226. S2CID 243878382.
  12. ↑ “The Cordyceps spider”: Taczanowskia waska sp. nov. (Araneae: Araneidae), a new spider species and a novel case of mimicry of an araneopathogenic fungus (Cordycipitaceae: Gibellula), by David R. Díaz-Guevara, Alexander Griffin Bentley, and Nadine Dupérré; in Zootaxa; Vol. 5760 No. 5: 26 Feb. 2026; p. 563-576; DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5760.5.4


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