{{Short description|Genus of spiders}} {{Automatic taxobox | image = Cercidia prominens1.jpg | image_caption = ''Cercidia prominens'' | taxon = Cercidia | authority = Thorell, 1869<ref name=NMBE /> | subdivision = *''C. levii'' <small>Marusik, 1985</small> – Russia (Europe), Kazakhstan *''C. prominens'' <small>(Westring, 1851)</small> – North America, Europe, Caucasus, Russia (Europe to Far East), Kazakhstan *''C. punctigera'' <small>Simon, 1889</small> – India | type_species = ''C. prominens'' | type_species_authority = (Westring, 1851) | subdivision_ranks = Species }}
'''''Cercidia''''' is a genus of orb-weaver spiders (family Araneidae). {{as of|2025|12}}, it contained only three species.<ref name=NMBE>{{cite web| title=Gen. ''Cercidia'' Thorell, 1869| website=World Spider Catalog| access-date=2025-12-04| publisher=Natural History Museum Bern| url=http://www.wsc.nmbe.ch/genus/292}}</ref>
==Description== The genus ''Cercidia'' can be distinguished from other Palearctic araneid genera by the possession of a scutum bearing spines and having a clypeus about 2.5 times the size of the median eyes. In related species, the clypeus is less than or equal to the diameter of the anterior median eyes.<ref name=Marus85>{{cite journal |last=Marusik |first=Y. M. |date=1985 |title=Ревизия пауков рода Cercidia Thorell (Aranei: Araneidae) сописанием нового вида |trans-title=Revision of the spider genus ''Cercidia'' Thorell (Aranei: Araneidae) with a description of a new species |journal=Vestnik Leningradskogo Universiteta (Biol.) |volume=3 |pages=114-118 |via=World Spider Catalog |url=https://wsc.nmbe.ch/reference/6096 |access-date=2025-12-04 |language=ru}}</ref>
==Taxonomy== The genus was first erected in 1866 by Anton Menge using the name ''Cerceis''. However, this genus name had already been used in 1840 for a genus of crustaceans, so was not available. The replacement name ''Cercidia'' was published by Tamerlan Thorell in 1869.<ref name=NMBE/><ref name=Thor1869>{{cite journal| last=Thorell| first=T.| year=1869| title=On European spiders. Part I. Review of the European genera of spiders, preceded by some observations on zoological nomenclature.| journal=Nova Acta Regiae Societatis Scientiarum Upsaliensis| pages=1–108| volume=7| issue=3}}</ref> The name is derived from the Greek κερκίς 'shuttle'.<ref name=Thor1869/>
In 1975, Herbert Walter Levi considered that ''Cercidia'' contained only one certain species, ''C. prominens''. He doubted that ''C. punctigera'' belonged to the genus.<ref name=Levi75>{{Cite journal |last1=Levi |first1=H. W. |date=1975 |title=The American orb-weaver genera ''Larinia'', ''Cercidia'' and ''Mangora'' north of Mexico (Araneae, Araneidae) |journal=Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology |volume=147 |pages=101-135 |url=https://wsc.nmbe.ch/reference/4623 |access-date=2025-12-04 |via=World Spider Catalog }}</ref> The third species accepted by the World Spider Catalog {{as of|lc=yes|2025|December}}, ''C. levii'', was not described until 1985.<ref name=NMBE/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q1172436}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Araneidae genera Category:Holarctic spiders Category:Taxa named by Tamerlan Thorell
{{Araneidae-stub}}