Grass spider

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Grass spider

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Family:	Agelenidae
Genus:	Agelenopsis Giebel, 1869

Diversity

13 species

Species

see text

The grass spiders are members of the genus Agelenopsis. They weave sheet webs that have a funnel shelter on one edge. The web is not sticky, but these spiders make up for that shortcoming by running very rapidly. They may be recognized by the arrangement of their eight eyes into three rows. The top row has two eyes, the middle row has four eyes, and the bottom row has two eyes (spaced wider than the ones on the top row). They also have two prominent hind spinnerets, and somewhat indistinct bands on their legs.

Agelenopsis aperta, the american funnel web spider, produces agatoxins. Their bite causes rapid paralysis in insect prey.

1 Name
2 Species
3 Other pictures
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Name

The genus name is a combination of Agelena a genus of similar spiders, and Greek -opsis "to look like". They are harmless spiders.

[edit] Species

Agelenopsis actuosa (Gertsch & Ivie, 1936) (USA, Canada)
Agelenopsis aleenae Chamberlin & Ivie, 1935 (USA)
Agelenopsis aperta (Gertsch, 1934) (USA, Mexico)
Agelenopsis emertoni Chamberlin & Ivie, 1935 (USA)
Agelenopsis kastoni Chamberlin & Ivie, 1941 (USA)
Agelenopsis longistyla (Banks, 1901) (USA)
Agelenopsis naevia (Walckenaer, 1842) (USA, Canada)
Agelenopsis oklahoma (Gertsch, 1936) (USA)
Agelenopsis oregonensis Chamberlin & Ivie, 1935 (USA)
Agelenopsis pennsylvanica (C. L. Koch, 1843) (USA)
Agelenopsis potteri (Blackwall, 1846) (North America, introduced in Russia)
Agelenopsis spatula Chamberlin & Ivie, 1935 (USA)
Agelenopsis utahana (Chamberlin & Ivie, 1933) (USA, Canada, Alaska)

[edit] Other pictures

Agelenopsis sp. male, 17 mm. (about 3/4 inch)	Same, showing elaborate pedipalps	Same, from the side.	Agelenopsis sp. showing pronounced leg spines.
Agelenopsis in its web.