Dipluridae

Dipluridae Temporal range: Norian[1] - Present PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Linothele fallax
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Infraorder:	Mygalomorphae
Clade:	Avicularioidea
Family:	Dipluridae Simon, 1889
Diversity
8 genera, 144 species

Masteria petrunkevitchi eye pattern

The family Dipluridae, known as curtain-web spiders (or confusingly as funnel-web tarantulas, a name shared with other distantly related families[2]) are a group of spiders in the infraorder Mygalomorphae, that have two pairs of booklungs, and chelicerae (fangs) that move up and down in a stabbing motion. A number of genera, including that of the Sydney funnel-web spider (Atrax), used to be classified in this family but have now been moved to Atracidae.

Description

Dipluridae lack rastella (stout conical spines on their chelicerae). Their carapace is characterized by the head region not being higher than the thoracic region. Their posterior median spinnerets (silk-extruding organs) are much shorter than their posterior lateral spinnerets, which have three segments, and are elongated (almost as long as their opisthosoma). Most of the species are medium to small-sized spiders; some may measure about 15 mm.[3] The cave species Masteria caeca is eyeless.

Biology

Members of this family often build rather messy funnel-webs. Some build silk-lined burrows instead of webs (Diplura, Trechona, Harpathele, some Linothele sp.). They generally build their retreats in crevices in earthen banks, the bark of trees, under logs or in leaf litter.[3]

Distribution

As circumscribed as of November 2024^[update], the family is mostly found in South America and the Caribbean, with some genera found in Australia and Oceania.[4]

Genera

As of November 2024^[update], the World Spider Catalog accepted the following genera:[4]

• Diplura C. L. Koch, 1850 — South America
• Harmonicon F. O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1896 — Brazil
• Harpathele Wermelinger-Moreira, Pedroso, Castanheira & Baptista, 2024 — Brazil
• Linothele Karsch, 1879 — South America
• Masteria L. Koch, 1873 — South America, Caribbean, Philippines, Central America, Oceania
• Siremata Passanha & Brescovit, 2018 — Brazil
• Striamea Raven, 1981 — Colombia
• Trechona C. L. Koch, 1850 — Brazil

Transferred to other families

The following genera are now placed in other families (elevated from subfamilies):[5][6]

• Allothele Tucker, 1920 → Euagridae
• Andethele Coyle, 1995 → Ischnothelidae
• Australothele Raven, 1984 → Euagridae
• Caledothele Raven, 1991 → Euagridae
• Carrai Raven, 1984 → Euagridae
• Cethegus Thorell, 1881 → Euagridae
• Chilehexops Coyle, 1986 → Euagridae
• Euagrus Ausserer, 1875 → Euagridae
• Indothele Coyle, 1995 → Ischnothelidae
• Ischnothele Ausserer, 1875 → Ischnothelidae
• Lathrothele Benoit, 1965 → Ischnothelidae
• Leptothele Raven & Schwendinger, 1995 → Euagridae
• Microhexura Crosby & Bishop, 1925 → Microhexuridae
• Namirea Raven, 1984 → Euagridae
• Phyxioschema Simon, 1889 → Euagridae
• Stenygrocercus Simon, 1892 → Euagridae
• Thelechoris Karsch, 1881 → Ischnothelidae
• Troglodiplura Main, 1969 → Anamidae
• Vilchura Ríos-Tamayo & Goloboff, 2017 → Euagridae

Extinct species

Extinct genera and species that have been placed in this family include:[7]

• †Clostes Menge, 1869 — Eocene Baltic amber
  • †Clostes priscus (Menge, 1869)
• †Cretadiplura Selden, 2005 — Early Cretaceous (Aptian) Crato Formation, Brazil[1]
  • †Cretadiplura ceara Selden, 2005
• †Dinodiplura Selden, 2005 — Early Cretaceous (Aptian) Crato Formation, Brazil[1]
  • †Dinodiplura ambulacra Selden, 2005
• †Seldischnoplura Raven, Jell & Knezour, 2015 — Early Cretaceous (Aptian) Crato Formation, Brazil[1]
  • †Seldischnoplura seldeni Raven, Jell & Knezour, 2015
• †Edwa Raven, Jell & Knezour, 2015 — Late Triassic (Norian) Blackstone Formation, Australia[1]
  • †Edwa maryae Raven, Jell & Knezour, 2015
• † Phyxioschemoides Wunderlich, 2015 — Cretaceous Burmese amber[8]
  • † Phyxioschemoides collembola Wunderlich, 2015
• † Cethegoides Wunderlich, 2017 — Cretaceous Burmese amber[9]
  • † Cethegoides patricki Wunderlich, 2017

See also

• Spider families

References

1. Robert J. Raven, Peter A. Jell and Robert A. Knezour (2015). "Edwa maryae gen. et sp. nov. in the Norian Blackstone Formation of the Ipswich Basin—the first Triassic spider (Mygalomorphae) from Australia". Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology. 39 (2): 259–263. Bibcode:2015Alch...39..259R. doi:10.1080/03115518.2015.993300. S2CID 131277819.
2. Raven, R.J. (1985). "The spider Infraorder Mygalomorphae (Araneae): cladistics and systematics". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 182: 1–180.
3. Murphy & Murphy 2000
4. "Family: Dipluridae Simon, 1889". World Spider Catalog. Natural History Museum Bern. Retrieved 2024-11-08.
5. "Family: Euagridae Raven, 1979". World Spider Catalog. Natural History Museum Bern. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
6. "Family Ischnothelidae F.O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1897 (genus list)". World Spider Catalog. Natural History Museum Bern. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
7. Dunlop, J.A.; Penney, D. & Jekel, D. (2017), "A summary list of fossil spiders and their relatives, version 18.0" (PDF), World Spider Catalog, Natural History Museum Bern, retrieved 2017-07-08
8. Jörg Wunderlich (2015). "On the evolution and the classification of spiders, the Mesozoic spider faunas, and descriptions of new Cretaceous taxa mainly in amber from Myanmar (Burma) (Arachnida: Araneae)". In Jörg Wunderlich (ed.). Beiträge zur Araneologie, 9: Mesozoic spiders and other fossil arachnids. pp. 21–408.
9. Jörg Wunderlich (2017). "New and rare fossil spiders (Araneae) in mid Cretaceous amber from Myanmar (Burma), including the description of new extinct families of the suborders Mesothelae and Opisthothelae as well as notes on the taxonomy, the evolution and the biogeography of the Mesothelae". In Jörg Wunderlich (ed.). Beiträge zur Araneologie, 10. pp. 72–279.

• Murphy, Frances & Murphy, John (2000): An Introduction to the Spiders of South East Asia. Malaysian Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur.

Further reading

• Chickering, A. M. (1964): Two new species of the genus Accola (Araneae, Dipluridae). Psyche 71: 174–180. PDF
• Coyle, F. A. (1986): Chilehexops, a new funnelweb mygalomorph spider genus from Chile (Araneae, Dipluridae). Am. Mus. Novit. 2860: 1–10. PDF
• Goloboff, Pablo A. (1994): Linothele cavicola, a new Diplurinae spider (Araneae, Dipluridae) from the caves in Ecuador. J. Arachnol. 22: 70–72. PDF Archived 2019-08-04 at the Wayback Machine
• Selden, P.A., da Costa Casado, F. & Vianna Mesquita, M. (2005): Mygalomorph spiders (Araneae: Dipluridae) from the Lower Cretaceous Crato Lagerstätte, Araripe Basin, North-east Brazil. Palaeontology 49(4): 817–826. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2006.00561.x

External links

• Taxonomy, housing and captive breeding of Dipluridae sp. including key to all genera