Pisaura is a genus of Eurasian spiders in the family Pisauridae.
Description Pisaura (at least the European species) vary in colouration from yellow and bright brown to mostly red-brown and grey or black. A distinct, bright stripe runs down the middle of the prosoma. The opisthosoma is long, slender and tapering posteriorly. On the dorsal surface of the opisthosoma is a wide, jagged stripe with dark margins. The posterior cheliceral furrow margin has two or three teeth.
Ecology Spiders of this genus are hunters on the ground or on vegetation.
Taxonomy The genus name Pisaura was first published by Eugène Simon in 1886. In 1757, Carl Alexander Clerck had described a species of spider under the name Araneus mirabilis; later authors placed the species either in Dolomedes or more usually in Ocyale. Simon stated that the type species of Ocyale was entirely different from "Ocyale mirabilis", so placed the species in a new genus as Pisaura mirabilis. In the same publication, Simon also described Pisaura valida, later placed in Afropisaura as Afropisaura valida.
Species , the World Spider Catalog accepted the following species:
Pisaura acoreensis Wunderlich, 1992 – Azores Pisaura anahitiformis Kishida, 1910 – Japan Pisaura ancora Paik, 1969 – Russia (South Siberia, Far East), China, Korea Pisaura bicornis Zhang & Song, 1992 – China, Japan Pisaura consocia (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1872) – Cyprus, Turkey, Israel, Lebanon, Syria Pisaura lama Bösenberg & Strand, 1906 – Russia (Far East), China, Korea, Japan Pisaura mirabilis (Clerck, 1757) (type species) – Europe, Turkey, Middle East, Caucasus, Russia (Europe to Middle Siberia), Central Asia, China Pisaura novicia (L. Koch, 1878) – Mediterranean to Central Asia, India Pisaura orientalis Kulczyński, 1913 – Mediterranean Pisaura podilensis Patel & Reddy, 1990 – India Pisaura quadrilineata (Lucas, 1838) – Canary Islands, Madeira Pisaura sublama Zhang, 2000 – China Pisaura swamii Patel, 1987 – India
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References
Further reading
Blandin, P. (1976) Etudes sur les Pisauridae africaines VI. Définition des genres Pisaura Simon, 1885, Pisaurellus Roewer,1961, Afropisaura n. gen. et mise au point sur les espèces des genres Afropisaura and Pisaurellus (Araneae - Pisauridae -Pisaurinae). Revue de Zoologie africaine, 90, 917–939.