Leucorchestris arenicola (Dancing white lady)
Lawrence, 1962
[= Leucorchestris kochi]
Dansende wit dame [Afrikaans]
Life
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Opisthokonta >
Metazoa
(animals) > Bilateria > Ecdysozoa > Panarthropoda > Tritocerebra >
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> Arachnida > Araneae
> Araneomorpha > Family: Sparassidae (huntsman
spiders)
> Genus: Leucorchestris Distribution and habitat
Occurs in the sand dunes of the Namib Desert.
Behaviour
Leucorchestris arenicola is known to do a dance,
hence its common name. The purpose of this dance is to communicate to other
males or females by drumming the tarsae against the sand.
The retreat consists of a short wide silk lined burrow at
the base of dunes. This, 30–40 cm long burrow, is dug at an angle of 30 degrees
and approximately 25 cm deep where temperature is more tolerable than on the hot
day time surface temperatures. A camouflaged trapdoor covers the burrow. Females
only wander no further than 40 m from their burrows while males have been found
to do a round trip of approximately 810 m. When returning they use various
methods of navigation to directly via the shortist route to its burrow.
Ecological interactions
Tenebrionid beetles, spiders, scorpions and Dune geckos,
Pachydactylus rangeri are the main prey Leucorchestris.
Derivation of name
Leucorchestris is derived from the Greek
orchestris meaning feminine dancer, and leuc referring to the
spider’s white colour.
Publications (by date)
- Lawrence RF. 1962. Spiders of the Namib Desert. Annals of the Transvaal
Museum 10: 197–211.
- Lawrence RF. 1965. Dune spiders of the Namib Desert. Animals 7: 260–263.
- Henschel JR. 1990. The biology of Leucorchestris arenicola
(Araneae: Heteropodidae), a burrowing spider of the Namib dunes. Pp.
115–127. In Namib Ecology− 25 Years Of Namib Research. (M.K. Seely, ed.).
Transvaal Museum Monograph No. 7, Pretoria.
- Henschel JR. 1994. Diet and foraging behaviour of huntsman spiders in
the Namib dunes (Araneae: Heteropodidae). Journal of Zoology 234(2):
239-251. doi:
10.1111/j.1469-7998.1994.tb06072.x
- Henschel JR. 1997. Psammophily in Namib Desert spiders. Journal of Arid
Environments 37:695–707.
- Polis GA, Barnes JD, Seely MK, Henschel JR, Enders MM. 1998.
Predation as a major cost of reproduction in Namib Desert tenebrionid
beetles. Ecology 79(7): 2560-2566. doi:
10.1890/0012-9658(1998)079[2560:PAAMCO]2.0.CO;2
- Henschel JR. 2002. Long-distance wandering and mating by the Dancing
white lady spider (Leucorchestris arenicola) (Araneae, Sparassidae)
across Namib dunes. Journal of Arachnology 30(2): 321-330. doi:
10.1636/0161-8202(2002)030[0321:LDWAMB]2.0.CO;2
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- Nørgaard T, Henschel JR, Wehner R. 2003. Long-distance navigation in the
wandering desert spider Leucorchestris arenicola: can the slope of
the dune surface provide a compass cue? Journal of Comparative Physiology A
189(11): 801-809. doi:
10.1007/s00359-003-0455-6
- Nørgaard T. 2006. Nocturnal navigation in Leucorchestris
arenicola (Araneae: Sparassidae). Journal of Arachnology 33: 533–540.
- Nørgaard T, Henschel JR, Wehner R. 2006a. The night-time temporal
window of locomotor activity in the Namib Desert long-distance wandering
spider, Leucorchestris arenicola. Journal of Comparative Physiology A
192(4): 365-372. doi:
10.1007/s00359-005-0072-7
- Nørgaard T, Henschel JR, Wehner R. 2006b. Tracking the Namib
Desert spider Leucorchestris arenicola - reading the story in the
sand. Senckenb Biol 86: 211–218.
- Birkhofer K, Henschel JR, Scheu S. 2006. Spatial-pattern analysis
in a territorial spider: evidence for multi-scale effects. Ecography 29(5):
641-648. doi:
10.1111/j.0906-7590.2006.04661.x
- Birkhofer K, Scheu S, Henschel JR. 2006. Does territorial
behaviour in the desert-living spider Leucorchestris arenicola
(Araneae: Sparassidae) affect its spatial distribution? Bulletin of the
British Arachnology Society 13: 341–346.
- Nørgaard T, Henschel JR, Wehner R. 2007. Use of local cues in the
night-time navigation of the wandering desert spider Leucorchestris
arenicola (Araneae, Sparassidae). Journal of Comparative Physiology A
193(2): 217-222. doi:
10.1007/s00359-006-0178-6
- Nørgaard T, Nilsson D-E, Henschel JR, Garm A, Wehner R. 2008.
Vision in the nocturnal wandering spider Leucorchestris arenicola
(Araneae: Sparassidae). The Journal of Experimental Biology 211: 816-823.
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Text by Norman Larsen © |