About 40,000 species of Spiders have been described and they are classified into 109 families. The following is a list of families classified under the three suborders of the order Araneae. The list is limited to true spiders (members of Aranae) and does not include organisms that are sometime confused with spiders or have the word, spider, as part of their common name such as camel spiders (Solifugae), harvestman (Opiliones) and spider mites.
The Mygalomorphae are large spiders, including the Tarantulas and are identified by the orientation of their fangs. The fangs point downwards.
The suborder Araneomorphae consists of most of the spiders that have fangs that point diagonally and cross each other in contrast to the previous suborder. Most of the familiar garden spiders belong to the Araneomorphae.
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