Araneoidea

Araneoidea
Araneus diadematus, Araneidae
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Infraorder:	Araneomorphae
Clade:	Entelegynae
Superfamily:	Araneoidea

The Araneoidea or araneoids are a taxon of araneomorph spiders, originally treated as a superfamily. As with many such groups, its circumscription has varied; in particular some families at one time moved to the Palpimanoidea have more recently been restored to Araneoidea. A 2014 treatment includes 14 families, with the araneoids making up about 26% of the total number of known spider species.

Taxonomy

The table below shows some alternative circumscriptions between 1986 and 2014.

Changing circumscriptions of Araneoidea

Family	Shear (1986)[1]	Coddington & Levi (1991)[2]	Griswold et al. (2005)[3]	Hormiga & Griswold (2014)[4]
Anapidae	yes	yes	yes	yes
Araneidae	yes	yes	yes	yes
Archaeidae	yes	–	–	–
Cyatholipidae	yes	yes	yes	yes
Holarchaeidae	–	–	–	yes
Linyphiidae	yes	yes	yes	yes
Malkaridae	–	–	–	yes
Micropholcommatidae	yes^a	–	possible	yes^c
Mimetidae	yes	–	–	yes
Mysmenidae	yes	yes	yes	yes
Nephilidae	yes^b	yes^d	yes^d	yes
Nesticidae	yes	yes	yes	yes
Nicodamidae	yes	–	–	–
Pararchaeidae	–	–	–	yes
Pimoidae	–	yes	yes	yes
Symphytognathidae	–	yes	yes	yes
Synaphridae	–	–	yes	yes
Synotaxidae	–	yes	yes	yes
Tetragnathidae	yes^b	yes	yes	yes
Theridiidae	yes	yes	yes	yes
Theridiosomatidae	yes	yes	yes	yes
Notes ^a including Textricellidae, treated as a separate family by Shear (1986) ^b included in Araneidae as a subfamily by Shear (1986) ^c included in Anapidae as subfamily Micropholcommatinae by Hormiga & Griswold (2014) ^d included in Tetragnathidae by Coddington & Levi (1991) and Griswold et al. (2005)

Many of the differences in circumscription concern the relationship between Araneoidea and Palpimanoidea. In 1984, Raymond R. Forster and Norman I. Platnick proposed that some groups previously considered araneoid actually belonged in the distantly related Palpimanoidea, including the families Holarchaeidae, Micropholcommatidae, Mimetidae and Pararchaeidae. Subsequent phylogenetic studies have rejected this proposal, firmly placing the Holarchaeidae, Micropholcommatidae (as the subfamily Micropholcommatinae of the Anapidae), Mimetidae and Pararchaeidae in Araneoidea.^[4]

Two families in the table above are placed elsewhere, the Archaeidae in the Palpimanoidea,^[5] the Nicodamidae as the sister to the araneoids (see the cladogram below).

Phylogeny

In 2014, Hormiga and Griswold produced the summary cladogram shown below, based on what they considered to be the nine most comprehensive phylogenetic studies of Araneoidea prior to their article. Polytomies in the cladogram represent either conflicting results from the different studies or the absence of sufficiently comprehensive studies.^[6]

	Nicodamidae Araneoidea Holarchaeidae Pararchaeidae Malkaridae Araneidae Nephilidae Tetragnatidae Mimetidae Linyphiidae Pimoidae Theridiidae Nesticidae Synotaxidae Cyatholipidae Synaphridae Theridiosomatidae Mysmenidae Anapidae (including Micropholcommatidae) Symphytognathidae

It is likely that relationships will change further when more studies are carried out, since "currently available molecular and morphological data are insufficient to robustly resolve relationships".^[7]

References

1. Shear, J.A. (1986), "Taxonomic Glossary", in Shear, W.A., Spiders: Webs, Behavior, and Evolution, Stanford University Press, pp. 405ff, ISBN 978-0-8047-1203-3, retrieved 2015-10-13
2. Coddington, Jonathan A. & Levi, Herbert W. (1991), "Systematics and evolution of spiders (Araneae)", Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics: 565–592, JSTOR 2097274
3. Griswold, C.E.; Ramirez, M.J.; Coddington, J.A. & Platnick, N.I. (2005), "Atlas of phylogenetic data for entelegyne spiders (Araneae: Araneomorphae: Entelegynae) with comments on their phylogeny" (PDF), Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 56 (Suppl. 2): 1–324, retrieved 2015-10-11
4. Hormiga, Gustavo & Griswold, Charles E. (2014), "Systematics, Phylogeny, and Evolution of Orb-Weaving Spiders", Annual Review of Entomology 59 (1): 487–512, doi:10.1146/annurev-ento-011613-162046, PMID 24160416
5. Hormiga & Griswold (2014), p. 492
6. Hormiga & Griswold (2014), p. 493
7. Hormiga & Griswold (2014), p. 505

Data related to Araneoidea at Wikispecies