Calligaster (Group of Spiders)

Alice Springs Fauna •

Alice Springs Spiders > Alice Springs Spider Index

The Calligaster Group of Spiders describes a collection of spiders (both recognised and unname species), and refers mainly to the commonly named group of “Badge Huntsman” spiders eg Neosparassus calligaster.

calligaster meaning “beautiful stomach”, because of the pattern on their underbelly”…

Badge huntsman is the common name for any species from the genus Neosparassus, this genus is understudied but is likely Australia’s most diverse huntsman genus with over 80-90 unnamed species, one of the known “species” is N. calligaster (calligaster meaning “beautiful stomach” because of the pattern on their underbelly”) isn’t actually one species but is a huge number of similar unnamed species, makes it easier to refer to them as a group since there’s so many…

Source: Eathan Douglas, Entomology Australia “Invertebratology”

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• Scientific classification
• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Arthropoda
• Subphylum: Chelicerata
• Class: Arachnida
• Order: Araneae
• Suborder: Araneomorphae
• Family: Sparassidae
  
  there are approximately 88 genera, encompassing 1,363 species (with more species being discovered)

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