Acacesia

Acacesia is a genus of orb-weaver spiders first described by Eugène Simon in 1895. It contains six species with a mostly neotropical distribution, ranging from South America to Mexico. One species, A. hamata, is found in the US as well.

Description
The backs of spiders in this genus are marked with a dagger shape, outlined in black and surrounded by a triangular folium. On each side of the dagger there are parallel rows of orange-brown dots. Body length of females ranges from 4.3 to 8 mm, of males from 3.6 to 6.5 mm

Behavior
As the other species are only known from museum specimens, only the natural history A. hamata is known in any detail.

Relationships
Ocrepeira and Cyclosa are close relatives of this genus.

Species
it contains six species:
 * Acacesia benigna Glueck, 1994 – Peru, Bolivia, Brazil
 * Acacesia graciosa Lise & Braul, 1996 – Brazil
 * Acacesia hamata (Hentz, 1847) – USA to Argentina
 * Acacesia tenella (L. Koch, 1871) – Mexico to Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana
 * Acacesia villalobosi Glueck, 1994 – Brazil
 * Acacesia yacuiensis Glueck, 1994 – Brazil, Argentina