Diagnoses of genera of South East Asia: Padilla (?; 3). Only
P. javana Simon, 1900 occurs in our area. The cephalothorax is flat and
long with the thorax much longer than the cephalus. In plan it is oval, slightly
attenuated in front and broader to the rear. It is coriaceous, dark brown in
colour, with the cephalus and each side of it, black. There is a broad, median,
thoracic stripe of yellow pubescence, narrowly edged with yellow hairs. The
shape of the abdomen is not mentioned, but by implication is a typical oval.
It is said to be smooth and black dorsally with a vague median stripe. The front
legs are very robust, with the femora, patellae and tibiae brown to black, with
the metatarsi and tarsi yellowish. The remaining legs are pale yellow. Characteristic
of most of the males of this genus is the very long (half as long as the cephalothorax,
or more), forward projecting process on each chelicera. It looks like a lance
which has been bent near the tip. Unfortunately P. javana lacks this
extraordinary embellishment. A male Padilla having such a process is
figured in Proszynski, 1984. The genitalia of both male and female of another
Padilla sp. are drawn in Proszynski, 1987 and are reminiscent of those
of Marengo (p. 311).
Distribution: The main centre for Padilla. is Madagascar, and
P. javana from Java is the only other described species.
Murphy & Murphy 2000: 276. By
courtesy of the Authors' and the Malaysian Nature Society.
Copyright © for the page by J. Proszynski, 2000.