New records of cladomelea from South Africa, including the first records of C. Longipes (O. pickard-cambridge, 1877) (araneae, araneidae) outside its type locality

Abstract

We present the first records of the bolas spider, Cladomelea longipes (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1877), beyond its type locality, resulting in a considerable extension of its geographic range in Africa. We compare C. longipes with the two other species of Cladomelea known from South Africa, C. akermani Hewitt, 1923 and C. debeeri Roff & Dippenaar-Schoeman, 2004. Images of live specimens and a distribution map are provided. Cladomelea longipes is very rare locally but has a relatively large geographical distribution in the Afrotropical Region.