Archaeidae

Assassin spiders

Austrarchaea sp.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Suborder:	Araneomorphae
Family:	Archaeidae C. L. Koch & Berendt, 1854
Genera
see text
Diversity
3 genera, 28 species

The Archaeidae are a spider family with 25 described species in three genera. Commonly known as assassin spiders, they are also known as pelican spider stemming from their specialised anatomy: they have elongated chelicerae (jaws) and necks for catching other spiders.

Distribution

Archaeidae occur in South Africa, Madagascar and Australia.

Assassin spiders

Assassin spiders, also known as the Spidsnuck, are a group of spiders of the families Archaeidae and Mecysmaucheniidae, which are extremely unusual in that they have "necks," which can be very long and slender or short and fat. Archaeids prey only upon other spiders, while mecysmaucheniids seem to be generalists. Assassin spiders were first known from 40 million year old amber fossils, which were found in Europe in the 1840s, and were not known to have living varieties until 1881, when the first living assassin spider was found in Madagascar. They are native to Australia, South Africa, and Madagascar, with the sister family Mecysmaucheniidae occurring in Southern South America and New Zealand. They range in size from 2-8 mm.

The fossil record of this family was first identified from Baltic amber dating to the Eocene, although many taxa from these deposits have been reassigned to Mecysmaucheniidae, Pararchaeidae and Holarchaeidae. Currently valid Baltic species include Archaea levigata and Archaea paradoxa. In 2003, Afarchaea grimaldii was described from Cretaceous Burmese amber aged between 88-95 million years, extending the record of this group considerably.

Species

Archaeinae
- Afrarchaea Forster & Platnick, 1984

- Afrarchaea bergae Lotz, 1996 — South Africa
- Afrarchaea entabeniensis Lotz, 2003 — South Africa
- Afrarchaea fernkloofensis Lotz, 1996 — South Africa
- Afrarchaea fisheri Lotz, 2003 — Madagascar
- Afrarchaea godfreyi (Hewitt, 1919) — South Africa, Madagascar
- †Afrarchaea grimaldii (Penney, 2003) — Burma
- Afrarchaea haddadi Lotz, 2006 — South Africa
- Afrarchaea harveyi Lotz, 2003 — South Africa
- Afrarchaea kranskopensis Lotz, 1996 — South Africa
- Afrarchaea lawrencei Lotz, 1996 — South Africa
- Afrarchaea mahariraensis Lotz, 2003 — Madagascar
- Afrarchaea ngomensis Lotz, 1996 — South Africa
- Afrarchaea royalensis Lotz, 2006 — South Africa
- Afrarchaea woodae Lotz, 2006 — South Africa

Austrarchaea griswoldi from Eungella National Park, Australia

- Austrarchaea Forster & Platnick, 1984

- Austrarchaea daviesae Forster & Platnick, 1984 — Queensland
- Austrarchaea hickmani (Butler, 1929) — Victoria (regarded as a dubious name)^[1]
- Austrarchaea griswoldi Rix & Harvey, 2012
- Austrarchaea hoskini Rix & Harvey, 2012
- Austrarchaea karenae Rix & Harvey, 2012
- Austrarchaea nodosa (Forster, 1956) — Queensland
- Austrarchaea tealei Rix & Harvey, 2012
- Austrarchaea thompsoni Rix & Harvey, 2012
- Austrarchaea wallacei Rix & Harvey, 2012
- Austrarchaea westi Rix & Harvey, 2012
- Austrarchaea woodae Rix & Harvey, 2012

- Eriauchenius O. P.-Cambridge, 1881

- Eriauchenius bourgini (Millot, 1948) — Madagascar
- Eriauchenius cornutus (Lotz, 2003) — South Africa
- Eriauchenius gracilicollis (Millot, 1948) — Madagascar
- Eriauchenius jeanneli (Millot, 1948) — Madagascar
- Eriauchenius legendrei (Platnick, 1991) — Madagascar
- Eriauchenius pauliani (Legendre, 1970) — Madagascar
- Eriauchenius ratsirarsoni (Lotz, 2003) — Madagascar
- Eriauchenius tsingyensis (Lotz, 2003) — Madagascar
- Eriauchenius vadoni (Millot, 1948) — Madagascar
- Eriauchenius workmani O. P.-Cambridge, 1881 — Madagascar

Zephyrarchaea mainae from Bremer Bay, Western Australia

Zephyrarchaea Rix & Harvey, 2012^[1]

- Zephyrarchaea austini Rix & Harvey, 2012
- Zephyrarchaea barrettae Rix & Harvey, 2012
- Zephyrarchaea grayi Rix & Harvey, 2012
- Zephyrarchaea janineae Rix & Harvey, 2012
- Zephyrarchaea mainae (Platnick, 1991) — Western Australia
- Zephyrarchaea marae Rix & Harvey, 2012
- Zephyrarchaea marki Rix & Harvey, 2012
- Zephyrarchaea melindae Rix & Harvey, 2012
- Zephyrarchaea porchi Rix & Harvey, 2012
- Zephyrarchaea robinsi (Harvey, 2002) — Western Australia
- Zephyrarchaea vichickmani Rix & Harvey, 2012

†Jurarchaea zherikhini Eskov, 1987 was previously considered a member of this family, but it is more likely a holarchaeid or a pararchaeid.

References

1 2 Rix, Michael; Harvey, Mark (2012). "Australian Assassins, Part II: A review of the new assassin spider genus Zephyrarchaea (Araneae, Archaeidae) from southern Australia". ZooKeys 191: 1–62. doi:10.3897/zookeys.191.3070.

Penney D. (2003) Afrarchaea grimaldii, a new species of Archaeidae (Araneae) in Cretaceous Burmese amber. Journal of Arachnology 31, 122-130. PDF
Platnick, Norman I. (2008): The world spider catalog, version 8.5. American Museum of Natural History.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Archaeidae.

Wikispecies has information related to: Archaeidae

Extant Araneae families

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida

Suborder Mesothelae

Liphistiidae (segmented spiders)

Suborder Opisthothelae

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List of families of spiders
Spider taxonomy
List of spider common names
Bold are families with more than 1000 species

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, April 03, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.