Cladomelea

Cladomelea is a genus of African orb-weaver spiders first described by Eugène Simon in 1895.^[2] Adult females of the genus are bolas spiders, capturing their prey with one or more sticky drops at the end of a single line of silk rather than in a web. Males and juvenile females capture their prey directly with their legs.^[3]

Cladomelea
C. debeeri
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Infraorder:	Araneomorphae
Family:	Araneidae
Subfamily:	Cyrtarachninae s.l.
Genus:	Cladomelea Simon, 1895[1]
Type species
C. longipes (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1877)
Species
4, see text

Species

As of September 2025^[update], this genus includes four species:^[1]

• Cladomelea akermani Hewitt, 1923 – South Africa
• Cladomelea debeeri Roff & Dippenaar-Schoeman, 2004 – South Africa
• Cladomelea longipes (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1877) – Cameroon, DR Congo, Zimbabwe, South Africa (type species)
• Cladomelea ornata Hirst, 1907 – Central Africa