| Cercidia | |
|---|---|
| |
| Cercidia prominens | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae |
| Infraorder: | Araneomorphae |
| Family: | Araneidae |
| Genus: | Cercidia Thorell, 18691 |
| Type species | |
| C. prominens (Westring, 1851)
| |
| Species | |
| |
Cercidia is a genus of orb-weaver spiders (family Araneidae). As of December 2025, it contained only three species.1
Description
The genus Cercidia can be distinguished from other Palearctic araneid genera by the possession of a scutum bearing spines and having a clypeus about 2.5 times the size of the median eyes. In related species, the clypeus is less than or equal to the diameter of the anterior median eyes.2
Taxonomy
The genus was first erected in 1866 by Anton Menge using the name Cerceis. However, this genus name had already been used in 1840 for a genus of crustaceans, so was not available. The replacement name Cercidia was published by Tamerlan Thorell in 1869.13 The name is derived from the Greek κερκίς 'shuttle'.3
In 1975, Herbert Walter Levi considered that Cercidia contained only one certain species, C. prominens. He doubted that C. punctigera belonged to the genus.4 The third species accepted by the World Spider Catalog as of December 2025, C. levii, was not described until 1985.1
References
References
- "Gen. Cercidia Thorell, 1869". World Spider Catalog. Natural History Museum Bern. Retrieved 2025-12-04.
- Marusik, Y. M. (1985). "Ревизия пауков рода Cercidia Thorell (Aranei: Araneidae) сописанием нового вида" [Revision of the spider genus Cercidia Thorell (Aranei: Araneidae) with a description of a new species]. Vestnik Leningradskogo Universiteta (Biol.) (in Russian). 3: 114–118. Retrieved 2025-12-04 – via World Spider Catalog.
- Thorell, T. (1869). "On European spiders. Part I. Review of the European genera of spiders, preceded by some observations on zoological nomenclature". Nova Acta Regiae Societatis Scientiarum Upsaliensis. 7 (3): 1–108.
- Levi, H. W. (1975). "The American orb-weaver genera Larinia, Cercidia and Mangora north of Mexico (Araneae, Araneidae)". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 147: 101–135. Retrieved 2025-12-04 – via World Spider Catalog.