Halonoproctidae is a

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

mygalomorph The Mygalomorphae, or mygalomorphs, are an infraorder of spiders, and comprise one of three major groups of living spiders with over 3000 species, found on all continents except Antarctica. Many members are known as trapdoor spiders due to the ...

spider Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...

s, split off from the family

Ctenizidae Ctenizidae is a small family of mygalomorph spiders that construct burrows with a cork-like trapdoor made of soil, vegetation, and silk. They may be called trapdoor spiders, as are other, similar species, such as those of the families Liphistii ...

in 2018. Species in the family are widely distributed in North and Central America, Australasia, Asia, southern Europe and North Africa. One species is recorded from

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

in South America. They are relatively large, sombrely coloured spiders, that live in burrows with some kind of trapdoor.

Description

Spiders of the family Halonoproctidae are of a medium to large size for spiders. They construct burrows with some kind of trapdoor, either wafer-like or cork-like. They range in colour from light brown to black, usually without any strongly distinctive body markings. The

carapace A carapace is a Dorsum (biology), dorsal (upper) section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods, such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates, such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tor ...

is usually without hairs and has only a few spines. The

sternum The sternum or breastbone is a long flat bone located in the central part of the chest. It connects to the ribs via cartilage and forms the front of the rib cage, thus helping to protect the heart, lungs, and major blood vessels from injury. Sh ...

is longer than it is wide, and has sigillae at least in the posterior part. The eyes are arranged in two or three rows. Females do not have

scopulae Scopulae, or scopula pads, are dense tufts of hair at the end of a spiders's legs. They are found mostly on hunting spiders, especially Lycosidae and Salticidae. Scopulae consist of microscopic hairs, known as setae, which are each covered in even ...

on their legs, but do have unique curved, thorn-like spines on the sides of legs I and II. Males have scopulae on the tarsi of at least some legs, often all. Their anterior legs have prominent spines and projections on the distal segments; their posterior legs have larger spines. Two pairs of

spinnerets A spinneret is a silk-spinning organ of a spider or the larva of an insect. Some adult insects also have spinnerets, such as those borne on the forelegs of Embioptera. Spinnerets are usually on the underside of a spider's opisthosoma, and are ...

are present: the posterior median pair being short and unsegmented, the posterior lateral pair are longer, but still short, and have three segments, the apical one being the shortest. The female

spermathecae The spermatheca (pronounced plural: spermathecae ), also called receptaculum seminis (plural: receptacula seminis), is an organ of the female reproductive tract in insects, e.g. ants, bees, some molluscs, oligochaeta worms and certain other in ...

have a single lobe. The male

palpal bulb The two palpal bulbs – also known as palpal organs and genital bulbs – are the copulatory organs of a male spider. They are borne on the last segment of the pedipalps (the front "limbs" of a spider), giving the spider an appearance often desc ...

has a thin embolus, and is borne on a spineless cymbium.

Taxonomy

The group was first described by R. I. Pocock in 1901, as the subfamily Halonoproctinae of the family Ctenizidae. The subfamily was named after the genus ''Halonoproctus'' which Pocock erected at the same time. ''Halonoproctus'' is now considered to be a junior synonym of ''

Cyclocosmia ''Cyclocosmia'' is a genus of mygalomorph trapdoor spiders in the family Halonoproctidae, first described by Anton Ausserer in 1871. Originally placed with the Ctenizidae, when the family split in 2018, this genus was placed with the Halonoproct ...

'', but this does not alter the priority of the name Halonoproctinae. Studies of the Ctenizidae using molecular phylogenetic approaches from 2006 onwards repeatedly found the family to be either

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage of organisms or other evolving elements that is of mixed evolutionary origin. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as homoplasies, which are explained as a result of conver ...

, but did not include all the genera placed in the family. A 2018 study that did include all nine genera found that six genera, including ''Cyclocosmia'', formed a monophyletic group, and so elevated Pocock's subfamily to the family Halonoproctidae. The status of the remaining three genera of the original Ctenizidae remained unclear. In the cladogram below, they are shaded in yellow.

Genera

, the

World Spider Catalog The World Spider Catalog (WSC) is an online searchable database concerned with spider taxonomy. It aims to list all accepted families, genera and species, as well as provide access to the related taxonomic literature. The WSC began as a series of ...

accepted the following genera. The family is divided into two subfamilies. *Halonoproctinae Pocock 1901 **'' Bothriocyrtum'' Simon, 1891 **''

'' Ausserer, 1871 **''

Hebestatis ''Hebestatis'' is a genus of mygalomorph spiders in the family Halonoproctidae Halonoproctidae is a family of mygalomorph spiders, split off from the family Ctenizidae in 2018. Species in the family are widely distributed in North and Central ...

'' Simon, 1903 *Ummidiinae Ortiz, 2007 **'' Conothele'' Thorell, 1878 **''

Latouchia ''Latouchia'' is a genus of Asian mygalomorph spiders in the family Halonoproctidae, first described by Reginald Innes Pocock in 1901. Originally placed with the Ctenizidae, it was moved to the Halonoproctidae in 2018. Species it contains twe ...

'' Pocock, 1901 **'' Ummidia'' Thorell, 1875

Distribution

Species in the family Halonoproctidae have been recorded from western and eastern North and Central America and the Caribbean, with one species, '' Ummidia asperula'', found in

in South America; on either side of the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

in southern Europe and northwestern Africa; in eastern Asia; and in

Australasia Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologica ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q53087094 Mygalomorphae families

Description

Taxonomy

Genera

Distribution

See also

References