Phrynarachne Decipiens:
Zoologists in Assam have added a species of spider Phrynarachne decipiens whose web mimics a bird’s excrement to India’s list of arachnids.
- Phrynarachne decipiens is better known as the bird dung or bird-dropping crab spider.
- It was known to be distributed in Malaysia and Indonesia’s Java and Sumatra.
- It has been recorded for the first time in the country from Assam’s Sonapur in the Kamrup (Metropolitan) district and the Chirang Reserve Forest in the Kokrajhar district.
- The spider is usually seen lying motionless 1-2 ft above the ground on the upper side of broad leaves.
- The chalky white colour of the spider and whitish deposition (its web) on the leaves, looking like bird excreta, make it very difficult to be sighted
- It has the stout spermathecae (a sac-like organ in the female reproductive tract that stores sperm received during copulation) with posterior heads almost touching each other.
