Gnaphosidae

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Ground spiders
Drassodes lapidosus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Superfamily: Gnaphosoidea
Family: Gnaphosidae
Pocock, 1898
Diversity
114 genera, c. 2,000 species

Genera

Callilepis
Cesonia
Drassodes
Gnaphosa
Herpyllus
Micaria
Trachyzelotes
Zelotes
many others
unidentified species

The ground spiders (family Gnaphosidae) include nearly 2,000 described species in over 100 genera worldwide. This makes the family the 7th largest known. New species are still being discovered. They are closely related to the Clubionidae1.

Common genera include Gnaphosa, Drassodes, Micaria, Cesonia, Zelotes and many others.

There are 14 species known to northwest Europe1.

Contents

Description

likely a gnaphosid, laying eggs into cocoon web

Generally, ground spiders are characterized by having barrel-shaped anterior spinnerets that are one spinneret diameter apart. The main exception to this rule is found in the ant-mimicking genus Micaria. Another characteristic is an indentation in the endites (paired mouthparts anterior and lateral to the labium, or lip). All ground spiders lack a prey-capture web and generally run prey down on the surface. They hunt at night and spend the day in a silken retreat1 The thick-walled egg sacs are guarded by the mother until the spiderlings hatch1.

Human interaction

At present, no ground spiders are known to be seriously venomous to humans. Very few people even notice these nearly worldwide reddish, brown, gray, striped or black spiders.

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c d Nieuwenhuys 2000

References

  • Platnick, N.I. & Shadab, M.U. (1983): A revision of the American spiders of the genus Zelotes (Araneae, Gnaphosidae). Bulletin of the AMNH 174: 99-191. PDF (29Mb) - Abstract
  • Ed Nieuwenhuys (2000): Spiders of NW-Europe Retrieved Jan 3, 2007. (with color pictures of some species)
  • Platnick, Norman I. (2007): The world spider catalog, version 8.0. American Museum of Natural History.

External links

Wikispecies
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Wikipedia content modification information:

  • This page was last modified on 28 September 2008, at 14:35.

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