Tetrablemmidae

Tetrablemmidae
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Suborder: Araneomorphae
Superfamily: Caponioidea
Family: Tetrablemmidae
O. P-Cambridge, 1873
Genera

see text

Diversity
29 genera, 126 species
Wikispecies has information related to: Tetrablemmidae

The Tetrablemmidae are a spider family with 126 described species in 29 genera that occur throughout the world tropics. They are sometimes called armored spiders.

The family Pacullidae, with the only genus Paculla, has been incorporated into this family in 1981.

Most tetrablemmids have been collected from litter and soil, including soil in epiphytes; some live in caves. Some cave species, but also some soil inhabitants, show typical adaptations of cave spiders, such as loss of eyes and weak sclerotization.[1]

Spiders in the genus Paculla are four to five times larger than other tetrablemmids. The genus Tetrablemma features only four eyes, a trait only shared with most species of the not closely related Caponiidae.

Tetrablemmids do not seem to build webs.

Distribution

Most genera occur in Southeast Asia, only a few in Africa and Central and South America.

Genera

See also

References

  1. Shear, W.A. (1978). Taxonomic notes on the armored spiders of the families Tetrablemmidae and Pacullidae. American Museum novitates 2650 PDF - Abstract