Pritha

For the Hindu figure, commonly known as Pritha, see Kunti.

Pritha is a genus of crevice weavers that was first described by Pekka T. Lehtinen in 1967.^[2]

Pritha
Pritha garfieldi with prey
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Infraorder:	Araneomorphae
Family:	Filistatidae
Genus:	Pritha Lehtinen, 1967[1]
Type species
P. nana (Simon, 1868)
Species
19, see text

Species

As of March 2022^[update] it contains nineteen species found in Asia and Europe:^[1]

• Pritha albimaculata (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1872) – Israel
• Pritha ampulla Wang, 1987 – China
• Pritha beijingensis Song, 1986 – China
• Pritha condita (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1873) – Azores, St. Helena
• Pritha crosbyi (Spassky, 1938) – Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Central Asia
• Pritha debilis (Simon, 1911) – Algeria
• Pritha dharmakumarsinhjii Patel, 1978 – India
• Pritha garfieldi Marusik & Zamani, 2015 – Iran
• Pritha hirsuta (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1872) – Israel
• Pritha nana (Simon, 1868) (type) – Mediterranean, India
• Pritha napadensis (Patel, 1975) – India
• Pritha pallida (Kulczyński, 1897) – Madeira, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Greece, Georgia
• Pritha parva Legittimo, Simeon, Di Pompeo & Kulczycki, 2017 – France, Italy, Switzerland, Bulgaria
• Pritha poonaensis (Tikader, 1963) – India
• Pritha sagittata Legittimo, Simeon, Di Pompeo & Kulczycki, 2017 – Italy, Switzerland, Croatia
• Pritha spinula Wang, 1987 – China
• Pritha tenuispina (Strand, 1914) – Israel
• Pritha vestita (Simon, 1873) – France (Corsica), Bulgaria
• Pritha zebrata (Thorell, 1895) – Myanmar

Description

They are small to medium sized spiders. Females have a fishbone-like pattern on the abdomen, while males have a whitish spot on the dorsal side of the abdomen. Their posterior median eyes are larger than the anterior medians. The cribellum is bipartite, and the calamistrum has three rows of setae of various lengths, however, the middle row is always the shortest.^[3]

Behaviour and ecology

They are mostly synanthropic: they are found commonly inside buildings, in door or window frames. They make three-dimensional webs that have retreats into cracks and crevices. However, they are also found under pine or oak bark, close to human settlements. They feed on small arthropods.^[3]