Box kite spider

{{Short description|Genus of spiders}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| name = Box kite spiders

| image = Isoxya tabulata, Krantzkloof Natuurreservaat, e.jpg

| image_caption = I. tabulata

| image2 = Isoxya cicatricosa00.jpg

| image2_caption = I. cicatricosa

| taxon = Isoxya

| authority = Simon, 1885

| subdivision = 16, see text

| subdivision_ranks = Species

| type_species = I. cicatricosa

| type_species_authority = (C. L. Koch, 1844)

}}

Box kite spiders (Isoxya) is a genus of Afrotropical orb-weaver spiders first described by Eugène Simon in 1885. Like the spiny orb-weavers they have six prominent (but short) spines on their abdomen. They are small spiders, measuring {{convert|3|to|7|mm}} across.{{cite web| last=Larsen| first=Norman| title=Isoxya (box kite spiders)| url=http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/arachnids/spiders/araneidae/isoxya.htm| work=biodiversity explorer| publisher=iziko museums| accessdate=2013-06-17| url-status=dead| archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130329164835/http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/arachnids/spiders/araneidae/isoxya.htm|archivedate=29 March 2013}} They have a sclerotised (or porcelain-like) abdomen which is typical of the Gasteracanthinae.

Species

{{as of|2019|04}} it contains sixteen species:{{cite web| title=Gen. | website=World Spider Catalog| accessdate=2019-05-13| publisher=Natural History Museum Bern| url=http://www.wsc.nmbe.ch/genus/335}}

References

{{Reflist}}