THE ORB-WEAVER GENUS WITICA 
(ARANEAE: ARANEIDAE).* 
By Herbert W. Levi 
Museum of Comparative Zoology, 
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. 02138 
Two species of neotropical orb-weavers, “Edricus” crassicauda 
and Witica talis, have each been known from a single sex, the first 
from females only, the second from males. The male of Edricus 
spinigerus, suspected by F.P. -Cambridge (1904) to belong with the 
female Epeira crassicauda, has never been collected with it, 
although Cambridge’s suspicion was the reason for placing the 
female E. crassicauda in the genus Edricus. While parthenogenesis 
could account for absence of males in E. crassicauda, the absence of 
females in Witica was more perplexing. The large females of Epeira 
crassicauda have a tail with a constriction (Fig. 1), the minute males 
of Witica talis (Fig. 5) have a round, subspherical abdomen bearing a 
glossy plate. The two placed in different subfamilies did not appear 
to be likely mates. 
Surveying our collections, I found males of Witica to have been 
collected in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Central and northern South Amer- 
ica, roughly the same distribution as the female specimens named 
“Edricus” crassicauda. Both are fairly common on Barro Colorado 
Island in Gatun Lake of Panama, from which large collections are 
available. 
Unexpected evidence for existence of males in E. crassicauda 
turned up: a male palpal part was found in the microscope slide 
preparation of the seminal receptacles. When expanding the palpus 
of Witica talis, I noticed that the structure first considered to be the 
conductor, and which is sometimes missing from specimens, is actu- 
ally an appendage of the embolus. Further, its structure is remarka- 
ble, including a hand with many fine teeth, presumably functioning 
as a hold-fast inside the female genital duct (Fig. 1 1). Subsequently, 
♦This is the third of a series of revisions of neotropical noncribellate orb-weaving 
spiders. 
Manuscript received by the editor March 17, 1986. 
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