Revision of the pseudo-orbweavers of the genus Fecenia Simon, 1887 (Araneae, Psechridae), with emphasis on their pre-epigyne

Abstract

The present paper provides a taxonomic revision of the genus Fecenia with emphasis on the characteristics of the pre-epigynes which are integrated for the first time into an identification key. As a result, one species is revalidated, Fecenia protensa Thorell, 1891, stat. n., and two new junior synonyms for Fecenia protensa are recognised: Fecenia sumatrana Kulczyński, 1908, syn. n. and Fecenia nicobarensis (Tikader, 1977), syn. n. New records are reported: Fecenia ochracea (Doleschall, 1859)from Malaysian Borneo, Fecenia macilenta (Simon, 1885) from Sumatra, Indonesia, Fecenia protensa from Thailand and Malaysia, Fecenia travancoria Pocock, 1899 from Sri Lanka and Thailand, and Fecenia cylindrata Thorell, 1895 from Thailand and Laos. Additional information on the biology of Fecenia is provided and the validity of characters for identifying Fecenia species is discussed.

The phylogenetic placement of Psechridae within Entelegynae and the convergent origin of orb-like spider webs

“…The phylogenetic affinities of Psechridae, especially the ‘pseudo‐orb’‐weaving Fecenia , are unclear. A recent taxonomic revision of Fecenia (Bayer ) did not test its phylogenetic position, nor that of Psechridae. Only a single phylogenetic study, based on 68 morphological characters, included Fecenia (Griswold ), but the study ignored web structure.…”

Seven new species of Psechrus and additional taxonomic contributions to the knowledge of the spider family Psechridae (Araneae)

“…The spider family Psechridae has been revised several times (Levi 1982;Wang & Yin 2001;Bayer 2011Bayer , 2012. In the latest revisions of Fecenia Simon, 1887 (Bayer 2011) and Psechrus Thorell, 1878(Bayer 2012, both genera have been revised on a worldwide basis. Nevertheless, the state of knowledge on many species is incomplete and questions remain.…”

Cues guiding uloborid construction behavior support orb web monophyly

“…The likelihood that the orb design is highly adaptive (Witt 1965;Agnarsson et al 2013), the high degree of flexibility in many aspects of orb design (Herberstein & Tso 2011), and the recent discovery of orb-like webs in the distantly related group Fecenia (Psechridae) (Bayer 2011;Agnarsson et al 2013) all make convergence on orb designs seem less unlikely (for histories of these ideas, see Coddington (1986) and Shear (1986)). …”