Taxon:
- Class: Arachnida
- Order: Araneae
- Infra-Order: Araneamorph (true spiders)
- Family: Philodromidae
- Genus: Philodromus
- Species: P. browningi
Female
Unknown.
Male
Around 8mm in body length. Leg span of approximately 17mm diagonally.
Cephalothorax:
Light brown. Round cephalothorax. Carapace with light stripe down centre and thin dark stripe inside it, behind eyes. Two dark spots on each jaw. Whitish sternum with rings of small dark spots around edges. Pedipalps long and thin, pyramid, dark. Palps with dark hairs.
Abdomen:
Flat, pointy oval abdomen with sharp tip at the end, two thin dark stripes centre anterior dorsal inside light triangle mark from anterior to near spinnerets, whitish “ruffles” on edges of triangle point. Whitish ventral abdomen with dark spot anterior centre and two faint thin dark stripes running toward spinnerets. Spinnerets yellowish.
Legs:
Thin long brown legs with dark spots. Dark setae. Second leg pair longest, first slightly shorter, third shortest.
ABOUT THE GENUS
Philodromus, which is the type genus for the family Philodromidae, is a large and wide-spread genus, having over 250 described species within it. P. browningi is, too, wide-spread in South Africa and has been recorded in every province, partly due to the spiderlings using a ballooning technique to ride the wind and reach a new area. These spiders have flattened bodies and are generally medium sized at an average of 7mm in body length. They are ambush predators that lay in wait of prey by flattening their limbs, and can be found on various substrates, from the ground up into trees.
Spiders in & around Orania 