Trichonephila sexpunctata (Araneae: Nephilidae): New Record from Rio Grande do Sul State, Southern Brazil

Authors: Costa MT and Da Rosa HS

DOI: 10.23880/izab-16000521

Volume 6, Issue 6

Abstract

Araneae order has almost 51,500 described species in the world, distributed in 135 families. Nephilidae is one of those families and presents 58 species, but only three in South America. Specifically southern Brazil there are two representants of thus family: Nephilingis cruentata, Trichonephila clavipes. In this way, we aim to record the Trichonephila sexpunctata (Giebel, 1687) species from Rio Grande do Sul state, southern Brazil. For this, we observed, collected, fixed, preserved, analyzed, and deposited in the institutional zoological collection six specimens between 2017 and 2018. They were also seen in later years in the region. Our survey indicates that this species, commonly called golden orbweaving spiders, appears to have a limited distribution. In fact, there are few records of T. sexpunctata, totalizing 15 records. Therefore, the ecology of T. sexpunctata is not fully determined. Thus, we record T. sexpunctata from southwest of Rio Grande do Sul, region characterized by Brazilian Pampa biome presence. Moreover, our observations suggest that these spiders can be well adapted in anthropic environmental.

Keywords: Nephila; Nephilingys; Uruguai River

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