Cercidia is a genus of orb-weaver spiders (family Araneidae). As of December 2025[update], it contained only three species.[1]
| Cercidia | |
|---|---|
| |
| Cercidia prominens | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae |
| Infraorder: | Araneomorphae |
| Family: | Araneidae |
| Genus: | Cercidia Thorell, 1869[1] |
| Type species | |
| C. prominens (Westring, 1851)
| |
| Species | |
| |
Description
editThe genus Cercidia can be distinguished from other Palearctic araneid genera by the possession of a scutum bearing spines and having a clypeus about 2.5 times the size of the median eyes. In related species, the clypeus is less than or equal to the diameter of the anterior median eyes.[2]
Taxonomy
editThe genus was first erected in 1866 by Anton Menge using the name Cerceis. However, this genus name had already been used in 1840 for a genus of crustaceans, so was not available. The replacement name Cercidia was published by Tamerlan Thorell in 1869.[1][3] The name is derived from the Greek κερκίς 'shuttle'.[3]
In 1975, Herbert Walter Levi considered that Cercidia contained only one certain species, C. prominens. He doubted that C. punctigera belonged to the genus.[4] The third species accepted by the World Spider Catalog as of December 2025[update], C. levii, was not described until 1985.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c d "Gen. Cercidia Thorell, 1869". World Spider Catalog. Natural History Museum Bern. Retrieved 2025-12-04.
- ^ Marusik, Y. M. (1985). "Ревизия пауков рода Cercidia Thorell (Aranei: Araneidae) сописанием нового вида" [Revision of the spider genus Cercidia Thorell (Aranei: Araneidae) with a description of a new species]. Vestnik Leningradskogo Universiteta (Biol.) (in Russian). 3: 114–118. Retrieved 2025-12-04 – via World Spider Catalog.
- ^ a b Thorell, T. (1869). "On European spiders. Part I. Review of the European genera of spiders, preceded by some observations on zoological nomenclature". Nova Acta Regiae Societatis Scientiarum Upsaliensis. 7 (3): 1–108.
- ^ Levi, H. W. (1975). "The American orb-weaver genera Larinia, Cercidia and Mangora north of Mexico (Araneae, Araneidae)". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 147: 101–135. Retrieved 2025-12-04 – via World Spider Catalog.
