Rhomphaea is a genus of comb-footed spiders that was first described by Ludwig Carl Christian Koch in 1872.

Distribution Spiders in this genus are found worldwide.

Life style Rhomphaea species are elusive solitary spiders. They capture other spiders that wander onto their webs and also venture onto other spiders' webs to capture the residents. These spiders employ aggressive mimicry to lure victims and throw a sticky triangular net over their prey.

Description

Rhomphaea spiders measure 4 to 5 mm in total length, with general coloration mostly light brown with many lighter spots.

The carapace features a slanting clypeus that projects anteriorly in both sexes, with stridulatory ridges and a longitudinal dark band. The carapace usually has a projection of the eye region in males. The abdomen is elongated, triangular, or cylindrical. In females, the abdomen tapers to a single tip and is usually four to six times as long behind the spinnerets as in front of them.

The legs are thin and long, with the first patella and tibia measuring three to four times the carapace length.

Taxonomy The genus is very close to Ariamnes.

Species

, this genus includes 39 species:

Rhomphaea aculeata Thorell, 1898 – Myanmar Rhomphaea affinis Lessert, 1936 – Mozambique, South Africa Rhomphaea altissima Mello-Leitão, 1941 – Brazil Rhomphaea angulipalpis Thorell, 1877 – Indonesia (Sulawesi) Rhomphaea annulipedis Yoshida & Nojima, 2010 – Japan Rhomphaea barycephalus (Roberts, 1983) – Seychelles (Aldabra) Rhomphaea birgitae (Strand, 1917) – Myanmar Rhomphaea brasiliensis Mello-Leitão, 1920 – Venezuela, Brazil Rhomphaea ceraosus (Zhu & Song, 1991) – China Rhomphaea cometes L. Koch, 1872 – Indonesia (New Guinea), Samoa, French Polynesia (type species) Rhomphaea cona (González & Carmen, 1996) – Argentina Rhomphaea fictilium (Hentz, 1850) – Canada to Argentina Rhomphaea hyrcana (Logunov & Marusik, 1990) – Georgia, Azerbaijan, China, Japan, Turkey? Rhomphaea irrorata Thorell, 1898 – Myanmar Rhomphaea jacko Tharmarajan & Benjamin, 2022 – Sri Lanka Rhomphaea labiata (Zhu & Song, 1991) – India, China, Korea, Japan, Laos Rhomphaea lactifera Simon, 1909 – Vietnam Rhomphaea longicaudata O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1872 – Greece, Lebanon Rhomphaea marani Tharmarajan & Benjamin, 2022 – Sri Lanka Rhomphaea martini Tharmarajan & Benjamin, 2022 – Sri Lanka Rhomphaea metaltissima Soares & Camargo, 1948 – Panama to Brazil Rhomphaea nasica (Simon, 1873) – Canary Islands, Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Croatia, Greece, Africa, St. Helena Rhomphaea oris (González & Carmen, 1996) – Argentina Rhomphaea ornatissima Dyal, 1935 – Pakistan Rhomphaea palmarensis (González & Carmen, 1996) – Argentina Rhomphaea paradoxa (Taczanowski, 1873) – St. Vincent, Mexico to Brazil Rhomphaea pignalitoensis (González & Carmen, 1996) – Argentina Rhomphaea procera (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1898) – Costa Rica to Argentina Rhomphaea projiciens O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1896 – USA to Argentina. Introduced to India Rhomphaea recurvata (Saaristo, 1978) – Seychelles Rhomphaea rostrata (Simon, 1873) – Canary Islands, Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece Rhomphaea sagana (Dönitz & Strand, 1906) – Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia (Far East), China, Korea, Japan, Philippines Rhomphaea shanthi Tharmarajan & Benjamin, 2022 – Sri Lanka Rhomphaea sinica (Zhu & Song, 1991) – China Rhomphaea sjostedti Tullgren, 1910 – Tanzania Rhomphaea tanikawai Yoshida, 2001 – China, Japan Rhomphaea triangula (Thorell, 1887) – Myanmar Rhomphaea urquharti (Bryant, 1933) – New Zealand Rhomphaea velhaensis (González & Carmen, 1996) – Brazil

In synonymy: R. argenteola (Simon, 1873) = Rhomphaea nasica (Simon, 1873) R. canariensis (Schmidt, 1956) = Rhomphaea rostrata (Simon, 1873) R. delicatula (Simon, 1883) = Rhomphaea nasica (Simon, 1873) R. feioi (Mello-Leitão, 1947) = Rhomphaea projiciens O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1896 R. honesta (Exline & Levi, 1962) = Rhomphaea brasiliensis Mello-Leitão, 1920 R. longa (Kulczyński, 1905) = Rhomphaea rostrata (Simon, 1873) R. martinae (Exline, 1950) = Rhomphaea projiciens O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1896 R. petrunkevitchi (Mello-Leitão, 1945) = Rhomphaea paradoxa (Taczanowski, 1873) R. remota (Bryant, 1940) = Rhomphaea fictilium (Hentz, 1850) R. simoni (Petrunkevitch, 1911) = Rhomphaea procera (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1898) R. spinicaudata (Keyserling, 1884) = Rhomphaea paradoxa (Taczanowski, 1873) R. spinosa (Badcock, 1932) = Rhomphaea projiciens O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1896

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Further reading