The spider family Liphistiidae was first recognized by Tamerlan Thorell in 1869. When narrowly circumscribed, it comprises a single genus Liphistius, native to Southeast Asia; as of April 2024[update], this was the circumscription accepted by the World Spider Catalog.[1] The family contains the most basal living spiders, belonging to the suborder Mesothelae. The family has also been circumscribed more broadly to include the family Heptathelidae as a subfamily, Heptathelinae, with the narrowly circumscribed Liphistiidae becoming the subfamily Liphistiinae.[3]
| Liphistiidae | |
|---|---|
| |
| Liphistius malayanus | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae |
| Suborder: | Mesothelae |
| Family: | Liphistiidae Thorell, 1869[1] |
| Diversity[2] | |
| 1 genus (Liphistius), 77 species | |
Taxonomy
editThe family Liphistiidae was erected by Tamerlan Thorell in 1869 for the genus Liphistius. Initially, it was the only family placed in the suborder Mesothelae. In 1923, Kyukichi Kishida described a new genus, Heptathela, and suggested creating two tribes within the Liphistiidae corresponding to the genera Liphistius and Heptathela.[4] In 1939, Alexander Petrunkevitch raised the tribe Heptatheleae to a separate family, Heptathelidae, thus restoring the narrower circumscription of the Liphistiidae. In 1985, Robert Raven reunited the two families,[5] a view supported by Breitling in 2022.[6] Other authors have maintained two separate families,[7][8] a position accepted by the World Spider Catalog as of April 2024[update].[9]
Liphistius, the sole genus in the narrowly circumscribed family Liphistiidae, is found mainly in Southeast Asia (Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Sumatra), with a few species found in China.[1] The Heptathelidae are found further north: five genera in northern Vietnam and China and two genera in Japan and offshore islands (Okinawa, Ryukyu Islands).[10]
Phylogeny
editMolecular phylogenetic studies have repeatedly shown that the suborder Mesothelae is monophyletic, at least as regards extant (living) species, with the two families forming separate clades:[8]
| Mesothelae |
| |||||||||
Genera
editAs of April 2024[update], the World Spider Catalog accepted the narrow circumscription of the family Liphistiidae, in which it contains only one genus:[1]
- Liphistius Schiödte, 1849 — Asia
Description
editMembers of the Liphistiidae share features with the other Mesothelae family, Heptathelidae. They are medium to large spiders. They have downward pointing, daggerlike chelicerae.[11] Like other members of the suborder Mesothelae, and unlike all other extant spiders, they have a segmented series of plates (tergites) on the upper surface of all segments of the abdomen and their spinnerets are placed in the middle of the underside of the abdomen, rather than at the end. Their sternum (a plate on the underside of the cephalothorax) is narrow, and there is another smaller ventral plate (the sternite) between the fourth pair of legs.[12] The carapace is mostly flat, though it can be slightly elevated near the head. The eyes are distinctly clustered together on a single nodule. The anterior median eyes are small, but the posterior median eyes are large and round. The lateral eyes are long and kidney-shaped. The distal leg segments have strong spines and three claws.[13] The respiratory system consists only of book lungs, which could help explain why they are relatively inactive.[14] Unlike heptathelids, the male palp has a tibial apophysis.[12]
In the past, they were frequently believed to lack venom, but in 2010 it was shown that at least some Liphistius species have venom glands.[15]
Liphistiids are tube-dwelling spiders that construct rudimentary trap-doors. They spend most of their time in their tubes and are rarely seen above ground. They are active at night and live for many years.[16] Unlike members of the family Heptathelidae, Liphistiidae spiders construct signal lines radiating from the entrance to their burrows.[12] Adult males sometimes wander in search for females, but females rarely leave their burrows.[16]
Fossil record
editWhile some Carboniferous fossil spiders have been assigned to Mesothelae, the only fossil to be explicitly placed in the family Liphistiidae is Cretaceothele lata Wunderlich, 2015 from the Cretaceous Burmese amber of Myanmar. The fossil genus was diagnosed as having an eye-field wider than that in living species.[17] It was later placed in its own, monotypic family Cretaceothelidae.[18]
References
edit- ^ a b c d "Family Liphistiidae Thorell, 1869 (genus list)", World Spider Catalog, Natural History Museum Bern, retrieved 2024-04-24
- ^ "Currently valid spider genera and species", World Spider Catalog, Natural History Museum Bern, retrieved 2024-04-24
- ^ Xu, X.; et al. (2015). "A genus-level taxonomic review of primitively segmented spiders (Mesothelae, Liphistiidae)". ZooKeys (488): 121–151. Bibcode:2015ZooK..488..121X. doi:10.3897/zookeys.488.8726. PMC 4389128. PMID 25878527.
- ^ Kishida, K. (1923). "Heptathela, a new genus of liphistiid spiders". Annotationes Zoologicae Japonenses. 10: 235–242 – via World Spider Catalog.
- ^ Raven, R. J. (1985). "The spider infraorder Mygalomorphae (Araneae): cladistics and systematics". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 182: 1–180 – via World Spider Catalog.
- ^ Breitling, R. (2022). "On the taxonomic rank of the major subdivisions of the extant segmented spiders (Arachnida: Araneae: Mesothelae: Liphistiidae s. lat.)". Miscellanea Araneologica. 2022: 1–4 – via World Spider Catalog.
- ^ Li, S. Q. (2022). "On the taxonomy of spiders of the suborder Mesothelae". Acta Arachnologica Sinica. 31 (1): 71–72. doi:10.3969/j.issn.1005-9628.2022.01.013.
- ^ a b Kulkarni, S.; Wood, H. M. & Hormiga, G. (2023). "Advances in the reconstruction of the spider tree of life: a roadmap for spider systematics and comparative studies". Cladistics. 39 (6): 479–532. doi:10.1111/cla.12557. PMID 37787157.
- ^ "Family: Heptathelidae Kishida, 1923)". World Spider Catalog. Natural History Museum Bern. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
- ^ Xu, Xin; Liu, Fengxiang; Cheng, Ren-Chung; Chen, Jian; Xu, Xiang; Zhang, Zhisheng; Ono, Hirotsugu; Pham, Dinh Sac; Norma-Rashid, Y.; Arnedo, Miquel A.; Kuntner, Matjaž & Li, Daiqin (2015). "Extant primitively segmented spiders have recently diversified from an ancient lineage". Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 282 (1808): 20142486. doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.2486. PMC 4455790. PMID 25948684.
- ^ Haupt, J. (2004). "The Mesothelae - a monograph of an exceptional group of spiders (Araneae: Mesothelae)". Zoologica. 154 (8). ISBN 3-510-55041-2. ISSN 0044-5088.
- ^ a b c Xin, Xu; Liu, Fengxiang; Chen, Jian; Ono, Hirotsugu; Li, Daiqin & Kuntner, Matjaž (2015-03-21). "A genus-level taxonomic review of primitively segmented spiders (Mesothelae, Liphistiidae)". ZooKeys (488): 121–151. Bibcode:2015ZooK..488..121X. doi:10.3897/zookeys.488.8726.
- ^ Song, D.X.; Zhu, M.S.; Chen, J. (1999). The Spiders of China. Hebei University of Science and Technology Publishing House, Shijazhuang.
- ^ Coddington, J.A.; Levi, H.W. (1991). "Systematics and Evolution of Spiders (Araneae)". Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 22: 565–592. doi:10.1146/annurev.es.22.110191.003025.
- ^ Foelix, R. & Erb, B. (2010). "Short communication: Mesothelae have venom glands". The Journal of Arachnology. 38: 596–598. doi:10.1636/b10-30.1. S2CID 85870366.
- ^ a b Murphy, Frances; Murphy, John (2000). An Introduction to the Spiders of South East Asia. Malaysian Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur.
- ^ Wunderlich, Jörg (2015). "On the evolution and classification of spiders, the Mesozoic spider faunas, and descriptions of new Cretaceous taxa mainly in amber from Myanmar (Burma) (Arachnida: Araneae)". Beiträge zur Araneologie. 9: 21–408.
- ^ Jörg Wunderlich (2017). "New and rare fossil spiders (Araneae) in mid Cretaceous amber from Myanmar (Burma), including the description of new extinct families of the suborders Mesothelae and Opisthothelae as well as notes on the taxonomy, the evolution and the biogeography of the Mesothelae". In Jörg Wunderlich (ed.). Beiträge zur Araneologie, 10. pp. 72–279.
- Ono, H (1999). "Spiders of the genus Heptathela (Araneae, Liphistiidae) from Vietnam, with notes on their natural history" (PDF). The Journal of Arachnology. 27 (1): 37–43.
External links
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