Eratigena herculea (Fage, 1931)
Description
Male
Eyes very reduced and without pigmentation. Anterior and posterior median eyes barely visible, only 0.02 mm in diameter. Lateral eyes about 0.05 mm in diameter. Opisthosoma cylindrical. Palp: median apophysis protruding, longer than wide, spoon-like, connected to tegulum by a membrane.
Prosoma length: 2.4 mm, prosoma width: 1.8 mm.
Female
Prosoma not darkened. Sternum with a weakly expressed pale median region. Opisthosoma brown-yellowish, only cardiac mark darker. Legs without a pattern. Eyes moderately reduced in size. Epigyne with a distinct posterior sclerite, forming a strongly sclerotized and protruding pocket-like structure.
Additional information
In caves.
Troglobiont species (Mammola et al., 2022)
Distribution
Figures
Pedipalp, retrolateral view
(Ribera & Barrientos 1986)
Pedipalp, ventral view
(Ribera & Barrientos 1986)
Tibial apophysis
(Ribera & Barrientos 1986)
Epigyne/vulva
(Brignoli 1977d)
Epigyne
(Fage 1931)
Epigyne
(Bolzern et al. 2013b)
Vulva, dorsal view
(Bolzern et al. 2013b)
Eyes, dorsal view
(Fage 1931)
Distribution List
"No references" does not mean that the species does not occur in this country, but that we have not yet inserted the reference for it. We are working on it.
References
Bolzern A, Burckhardt D, Hänggi A (2013b) Phylogeny and taxonomy of European funnel-web spiders of the Tegenaria-Malthonica complex (Araneae: Agelenidae) based upon morphological and molecular data. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 168: 723-848 
Branco V V, Morano E, Cardoso P (2019) An update to the Iberian spider checklist (Araneae). Zootaxa 4614: 201-254
Brignoli P M (1977d) Sur quelques Tegenaria cavernicoles d'Espagne (Araneae, Agelenidae). Comunicacions del 6è. Simposium d'Espeleologia, Terrassa 1977: 69-71
Fage L (1931) Araneae, 5e série, précédée d'un essai sur l'évolution souterraine et son déterminisme. In Biospeologica, LV. Archives de Zoologie Expérimentale et Générale 71: 99-291
Mammola S, Pavlek M, Huber B A, Isaia M, Ballarin F, Tolve M, Čupić I, Hesselberg T, Lunghi E, Mouron S, Graco-Roza C, Cardoso P (2022) A trait database and updated checklist for European subterranean spiders. Scientific Data 9(236): 1-13
Ribera C, Barrientos J A (1986) Sobre algunas tegenarias cavernicolas poco conocidas del Mediterraneo español. Mémoires de la Société Royal Belge d'Entomologie 33: 187-197
WSC (2025) World Spider Catalog. Version 26. Natural History Museum Bern, online at http://wsc.nmbe.ch (28.2.2025) doi: 10.24436/2
Updates
| 24-11-2025 | Image insert | |
| 10-05-2016 | Datasheet update | Detail |