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Poltys (spider)

Poltys is a genus of orb-weaver spiders first described by C. L. Koch in 1843. Many species are cryptic and are known to masquerade as leaves and twigs during the day, with the shape of the abdomen giving it the impression of a rough and broken branch, and the shape can vary among individuals within a species, promoting crypsis.

As an orb-weaver, these spiders build an orb web at night to capture prey; the web is eaten up before dawn and reconstructed after dusk.

Description

Poltys is a rather distinctive araneid genus that can be recognised by a combination of widely separated lateral eyes and a pear-shaped carapace, where the "stalk" of the pear is an eye tubercle present as a frontally elevated projection.

The median ocular quadrangle is as long as it is wide, the lateral eyes are widely separated and the median eyes are situated anterior on eye tubercles. Legs I and II are long with flat curved and spinulose tibiae and metatarsi. The large abdomen is anteriorly elevated and bears irregular tubercles.

Species

it contains 42 described species:

African species:

Indo-Pacific species:

Unnamed species of leaf mimic, southwest China and Vietnam.

References