Taczanowskia is a genus of orb-weaver spiders first described by Eugen von Keyserling in 1879. 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.
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.
Species it contains eight species from South America and Mexico: Taczanowskia gustavoi Ibarra-Núñez, 2013 – Mexico Taczanowskia mirabilis Simon, 1897 – Bolivia, Brazil Taczanowskia onowoka Jordán, Domínguez-Trujillo, & Cisneros-Heredia, 2021 – Ecuador 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“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 Taczanowskia yasuni Díaz-Guevara, Macías-Tulcán & Galvis, 2024 – Ecuador
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