Platnickina

Platnickina
P. tincta
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Infraorder:	Araneomorphae
Family:	Theridiidae
Genus:	Platnickina Koçak & Kemal, 2008
Type species
P. maculata (Yoshida, 2001)
Species
15, see text

Platnickina is a genus of comb-footed spiders. The type species was described by Walckenaer in 1802. The modern taxonomy was given by A. Ö. Koçak & M. Kemal in 2008, and named in honour of Norman Platnick.

Distribution

Spiders in this genus are found worldwide.

Description

As comb-footed spiders, Platnickina have two body segments (prosoma and opisthosoma) and eight legs. The tarsi of the final leg pair have rows of strong, serrated bristles ventrally.

Platnickina can be distinguished from other theridiid genera by the presence of trichobothria on the metatarsi of the third leg pair, the opisthosoma not being higher than it is long, and the absence of a colulus. Also, the European species at least are bright yellow with black mottling.

Species

• 
  female P. adamsoni
• 
  P. alabamensis
• 
  female P. maculata from Okinawa

As of October 2025^[update], this genus includes fifteen species:

In synonymy:

• P. adamsoni (Berland, 1934) = Platnickina mneon (Bösenberg & Strand, 1906)
• P. blatchleyi (Bryant, 1945) = Platnickina mneon (Bösenberg & Strand, 1906)
• P. cinerascens (Roewer, 1942) = Platnickina alabamensis (Gertsch & Archer, 1942)
• P. hobbsi (Gertsch & Archer, 1942) = Platnickina mneon (Bösenberg & Strand, 1906)
• P. insulicola (Bryant, 1947) = Platnickina mneon (Bösenberg & Strand, 1906)
• P. talmo (Chamberlin & Ivie, 1944) = Platnickina alabamensis (Gertsch & Archer, 1942)

See also

• List of spiders of Texas

References

Further reading

• Yoshida, H. (2001). "A revision of the Japanese genera and species of the subfamily Theridiinae (Araneae: Theridiidae)". Acta Arachnologica. 50 (2): 157–181. doi:10.2476/asjaa.50.157.
• Levi, H. W. (1957). "The spider genera Enoplognatha, Theridion, and Paidisca in America north of Mexico (Araneae, Theridiidae)". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 112: 1–124.
• Yoshida, H. (2009), "Uloboridae, Theridiidae, Ctenidae", in Ono, H. (ed.), The spiders of Japan with keys to the families and genera and illustrations of the species
• Yoshida, H. (2003). The spider family Theridiidae (Arachnida: Araneae) from Japan. Arachnological Society of Japan. p. 224.
• Song, D. X.; Zhu, M. S.; Chen, J. (1999). The spiders of China. Hebei Science and Technology Publishing House, Shijiazhuang. p. 640.

External links

• Citizen science observations for Platnickina at iNaturalist