Dipluridae

Funnel-web tarantulas Temporal range: Norian^[1]-Recent

Linothele fallax
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Suborder:	Opisthothelae
Infraorder:	Mygalomorphae
Family:	Dipluridae Simon, 1889
Genera
Diplura Euagrus Masteria Microhexura others, see text
Diversity
24 genera, 174 species

Masteria petrunkevitchi eye pattern

The family Dipluridae, known as funnel-web tarantulas,^[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 Hexathelidae.

Description

Dipluridae lack a rastellum (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, with some, such as the endangered Microhexura montivaga, as small as 3 mm, while others 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, 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

Member of Euagrus in Guadalajara, Mexico

Dipluridae occur almost worldwide in the tropics. Most are found in Central and South America, and many occur in the Australian region. Indothele is found in India and Sri Lanka. Ischnothele is a neotropical genus, but one species occurs only in India. Several genera are found in Africa, with Thelechoris also occurring in Madagascar. Leptothele and Phyxioschema suthepium are endemic to Thailand, with the other Phyxioschema species found in Central Asia. Masteria is widely distributed, with species found in places such as Central America, Fiji, the Philippines, Queensland and New Guinea.^[4]

The common genus in the United States is Euagrus, which builds its webs under stones in wet canyons. It is abundant in such areas as the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona.

Diplurids can be very common in banks and road cuts, such as in Trinidad.

Human interaction

There is no proper proof on the toxicity of their venom, but it is probably wise to avoid direct contact with the larger members (Diplura sp., Harmonicon sp., Linothele sp., and Trechona sp.).

The highly venomous genus Atrax used to be placed in this family, but is now in the Hexathelidae.

Genera

The grouping into subfamilies follows Raven, R. J. (1985a), and Coyle, F. A. (1984, 1986, 1988, 1995):

Diplurinae Simon, 1889

†Clostes Menge, 1869 — fossil, Eocene Baltic amber
- †Clostes priscus (Menge, 1869)
Diplura C. L. Koch, 1850 — South America, Cuba
Harmonicon F. O. P-Cambridge, 1896 — French Guiana, Brazil
Linothele Karsch, 1879 — South America
Trechona C. L. Koch, 1850 — South America

Euagrinae Raven, 1979
- †Cretadiplura Selden, 2005 — fossil, Early Cretaceous^[1]
  - †Cretadiplura ceara Selden, 2005
- †Dinodiplura Selden, 2005 — fossil, Lower Cretaceous^[1]
  - †Dinodiplura ambulacra Selden, 2005
- †Seldischnoplura Raven, Jell & Knezour, 2015 — fossil, Early Cretaceous^[1]
  - † 'Seldischnoplura seldeni Raven, Jell & Knezour, 2015
- Allothele Tucker, 1920 — Africa
- Australothele Raven, 1984 — Australia
- Caledothele Raven, 1991 — Australia
- Carrai Raven, 1984 — New South Wales
- Cethegus Thorell, 1881 — Australia
- Euagrus Ausserer, 1875 — Southern USA to Costa Rica, South Africa, Taiwan
- Microhexura Crosby & Bishop, 1925 — USA
- Namirea Raven, 1984 — Australia
- Phyxioschema Simon, 1889 — Central Asia
- Stenygrocercus Simon, 1892 — New Caledonia
Ischnothelinae F. O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1897
- Andethele Coyle, 1995 — Peru
- Indothele Coyle, 1995 — India
- Ischnothele Ausserer, 1875 — Mexico to Argentina, Caribbean, India
- Lathrothele Benoit, 1965 — Africa
- Thelechoris Karsch, 1881 — Africa, Madagascar
Masteriinae Simon, 1889
- †Edwa Raven, Jell & Knezour, 2015 — fossil, Late Triassic (Norian) Blackstone Formation, Australia^[1]
  - †Edwa maryae Raven, Jell & Knezour, 2015
- Chilehexops Coyle, 1986 — Chile, Argentina
- Masteria L. Koch, 1873 — Caribbean, Central and South America, Oceania, Australia
- Striamea Raven, 1981 — Colombia
incertae sedis
- Leptothele Raven & Schwendinger, 1995 — Thailand
- Troglodiplura Main, 1969 — Australia

Footnotes

1 2 3 4 5 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. doi:10.1080/03115518.2015.993300.
↑ Raven, R.J. (1985). "The spider Infraorder Mygalomorphae (Araneae): cladistics and systematics". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 182: 1–180.
1 2 Murphy & Murphy 2000
↑ Platnick 2008

References

Murphy, Frances & Murphy, John (2000): An Introduction to the Spiders of South East Asia. Malaysian Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur.
Platnick, Norman I. (2008): The world spider catalog, version 8.5. American Museum of Natural History.

External links

Wikispecies has information related to: Dipluridae

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dipluridae.

Platnick, Norman I. (2008): The world spider catalog, version 8.5. American Museum of Natural History.
Taxonomy, housing and captive breeding of Dipluridae sp. including key to all genera

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 Monday, April 04, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.