''Artifex'' is a small genus of orb-weaver spiders native to tropical regions of mainland

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and to

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. The genus was erected by R. J. Kallal and Gustavo Hormiga in 2018 to contain two species moved from different genera that have several

synapomorphies In phylogenetics, an apomorphy (or derived trait) is a novel character or character state that has evolved from its ancestral form (or plesiomorphy). A synapomorphy is an apomorphy shared by two or more taxa and is therefore hypothesized to have ...

, including an abdomen that extends past the spinnerets, widely separated spermathecae, and dorsal markings similar to those of Zygiellinae. The name is a combination of the Latin "

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", meaning "art", and " -fex", meaning "maker" in reference to the shelters they build out of leaves. it contains only two species: '' A. joannae'' and '' A. melanopyga''.

See also

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Further reading