| Tangled nest spiders | |
|---|---|
| Callobius sp. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae |
| Suborder: | Araneomorphae |
| Superfamily: | Amaurobioidea |
| Family: | Amaurobiidae Thorell, 1870 |
| Genera | |
|
Callobius |
|
| Diversity | |
| 71 genera, 682 species | |
The Amaurobiidae are three-clawed cribellate or ecribellate spiders found in most parts of the world and difficult to distinguish from related spiders in other families, especially Agelenidae, Desidae and Amphinectidae. Their intra- and interfamilial relationships are contentious. In Spider Families of the World 2007 they were represented by 69 genera and about 640 species in 5 subfamilies.
In Australia they are small to medium-sized entelgyne spiders with generous sheet webs across the floor of rainforests. They generally have eight similar eyes in two conservatively curved rows. They often have a calamistrum on metatarsus IV associated with a cribellum. Australian Amaurobiids may be distinguished from Amphinectidae by the absence of a pre-tarsal fracture and the presence of a retrocoxal hymen on coxa I.[1]