Hogna simoni


Hogna simoni is a species of spider in the family Lycosidae. It is found in Africa and is commonly known as the spotted burrow-living wolf spider.

Distribution

Hogna simoni is found in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, and South Africa.
In South Africa, it is known only from KwaZulu-Natal province.

Habitat and ecology

This species is a free-living ground dweller that lives in open burrows.
In South Africa, it has been sampled from the Savanna biome at an altitude of 131 m.

Description

Hogna simoni is known from both sexes.
The cephalothorax has a red-brown eye field with dark radial bands, broad medially wavy margins, white-coated marginal bands, and a narrow white hairy median band barely broadened in front of the striae.
The abdomen is dorsally rusty yellow and pale hairy, with a broad lanceolate reddish-yellow median band in front that has whisker-like dot flecks. Behind this are five to six whisker-like angular flecks.
The legs are rusty yellow and white hairy, with the femora dorsally slightly darker.
The chelicerae are black and frontally whitish hairy.

Conservation

The species has a large geographic range in Africa and is protected in uMkhuze Game Reserve in South Africa.

Etymology

The species is named after Eugène Simon, a prominent French arachnologist who made extensive contributions to spider taxonomy.

Taxonomy

The species was described by Roewer in 1959 from Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.