''Macrothele'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

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 t ...

spiders in the family

Macrothelidae ''Macrothele'' is a genus of mygalomorph spiders in the family Macrothelidae, and was first described by A. Ausserer in 1871. It is the only genus in the family Macrothelidae, and most species occur in Asia, from India to Japan, and Java, with ...

, and was first described by A. Ausserer in 1871. It is the only genus in the family Macrothelidae, and most species occur in

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

, from

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

to Japan, and

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...

, with five found in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, and two in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

. The name is derived from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

μακρός ("makro-"), meaning "big", and θηλή ("thele"), referring to the

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 ...

Description

Spiders of this genus are fairly large, with females of some Chinese species ranging from in body length. Males are smaller, sometimes only half that length. Macrothelids can be distinguished from other

spiders by their larger posterior sigillae on 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. Sha ...

, and the arrangement of the rows of teeth on the margin of the

chelicerae The chelicerae () are the mouthparts of the subphylum Chelicerata, an arthropod group that includes arachnids, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders. Commonly referred to as " jaws", chelicerae may be shaped as either articulated fangs, or similarl ...

: larger front-facing margin and smaller rear-facing. These spiders build tube-webs or funnel-webs under rocks or logs, or in crevices in the ground.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Macrothele'' was erected by Anton Ausserer in 1871, with the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...

being '' Macrothele calpeiana'', formerly ''Mygale calpeiana''. Ausserer placed the genus in the then very broadly defined family

Theraphosidae Tarantulas comprise a group of large and often hairy spiders of the family Theraphosidae. , 1,040 species have been identified, with 156 genera. The term "tarantula" is usually used to describe members of the family Theraphosidae, although m ...

. It was later placed in the

Dipluridae The family Dipluridae, known as curtain-web spiders (or confusingly with other distantly related ones as funnel-web tarantulas) are a group of spiders in the infraorder Mygalomorphae, that have two pairs of booklungs, and chelicerae (fangs) tha ...

and the

Hexathelidae Hexathelidae is a family of mygalomorph spiders. It is one of a number of families and genera of spiders known as funnel-web spiders. In 2018, the family was substantially reduced in size by genera being moved to three separate families: Atracid ...

before being transferred to the Macrothelidae in 2018. A molecular phylogenetic study in 2018 suggested that ''Macrothele'' was a distinct, early diverging lineage within the Mygalomorphae. Accordingly, Simon's subfamily Macrothelinae was elevated to the family Macrothelidae. There is some doubt if the western and eastern species should be grouped in the same genus. The following

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to ...

shows the possible relationship of ''Macrothele'' to related taxa:

Species

, it contains 42 species and one subspecies from

and

: *'' Macrothele abrupta'' Benoit, 1965 – Congo *'' Macrothele alyrata'' (Mirza, Sanap & Kunte, 2017) – India *'' Macrothele amamiensis'' Shimojana & Haupt, 1998 – Japan (Ryukyu Is.) *'' Macrothele arcuata'' Tang, Zhao & Yang, 2020 – China *'' Macrothele bannaensis'' Xu & Yin, 2001 – China, Laos *'' Macrothele calpeiana'' (Walckenaer, 1805) ( type) – Southern Europe, North Africa *'' Macrothele camerunensis''

Simon Simon may refer to: People * Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon * Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon * Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genus ...

, 1903 – Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea *'' Macrothele cangshanensis'' Z. B. Yang, Zhao, Zhang & Z. Z. Yang, 2018 – China *'' Macrothele cretica'' Kulczyński, 1903 – Greece (Crete) *'' Macrothele decemnotata'' Simon, 1909 – Vietnam *'' Macrothele drolshageni'' Özkütük, Elverici, Yağmur & Kunt, 2019 – Turkey *'' Macrothele emei'' Lin & Li, 2021 – China *'' Macrothele gigas'' Shimojana & Haupt, 1998 – Japan (Ryukyu Is.) *'' Macrothele guizhouensis'' Hu & Li, 1986 – China *'' Macrothele hanfeii'' Lin & Li, 2021 – China (Hainan) *'' Macrothele holsti'' Pocock, 1901 – Taiwan *'' Macrothele hungae'' Lin & Li, 2021 – Taiwan *'' Macrothele incisa'' Benoit, 1965 – Congo *'' Macrothele jingzhao'' Chen, Jiang & Yang, 2020 – China *'' Macrothele jinlin'' Z. B. Yang, Zhao, Zhang & Z. Z. Yang, 2018 – China *'' Macrothele limenghuai'' Lin & Li, 2021 – China *'' Macrothele maculata'' ( Thorell, 1890) – Myanmar, Indonesia (Sumatra, Java) **'' M. m. annamensis'' Hogg, 1922 – Vietnam *'' Macrothele menglunensis'' Li & Zha, 2013 – China *'' Macrothele mingsheng'' Wu & Z. Z. Yang, 2022 – China *''

Macrothele monocirculata ''Macrothele'' is a genus of mygalomorph spiders in the family Macrothelidae, and was first described by A. Ausserer in 1871. It is the only genus in the family Macrothelidae, and most species occur in Asia, from India to Japan, and Java, with f ...

'' Xu & Yin, 2000 – China *'' Macrothele multispine'' Wang, Li & Yang, 2019 – China *'' Macrothele nanning'' Lin & Li, 2021 – China *'' Macrothele proserpina'' Simon, 1909 – Vietnam *''

Macrothele raveni ''Macrothele'' is a genus of mygalomorph spiders in the family Macrothelidae, and was first described by A. Ausserer in 1871. It is the only genus in the family Macrothelidae, and most species occur in Asia, from India to Japan, and Java, with ...

'' Zhu, Li & Song, 2000 – China *'' Macrothele sanheensis'' Tang, Zhao & Yang, 2020 – China *'' Macrothele segmentata'' Simon, 1892 – Malaysia *'' Macrothele simplicata'' (Saito, 1933) – Taiwan *'' Macrothele taiwanensis'' Shimojana & Haupt, 1998 – Taiwan *'' Macrothele triangularis'' Benoit, 1965 – Congo *'' Macrothele undata'' Tang, Zhao & Yang, 2020 – China *'' Macrothele vidua'' Simon, 1906 – India *'' Macrothele washanensis'' Wu & Z. Z. Yang, 2022 – China *'' Macrothele wuliangensis'' Wu & Z. Z. Yang, 2022 – China *'' Macrothele yaginumai'' Shimojana & Haupt, 1998 – Japan (Ryukyu Is.) *'' Macrothele yani'' Xu, Yin & Griswold, 2002 – China *''

Macrothele yongshengensis ''Macrothele'' is a genus of mygalomorph spiders in the family Macrothelidae, and was first described by A. Ausserer in 1871. It is the only genus in the family Macrothelidae, and most species occur in Asia, from India to Japan, and Java, with f ...

'' Z. B. Yang, Zhao & Z. Z. Yang, 2019 – China *'' Macrothele yunlingensis'' Z. B. Yang, Zhao & Z. Z. Yang, 2019 – China

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q98876, from2=Q53536229 Macrothelidae Mygalomorphae genera Spiders of Asia Spiders of Africa

Description

Taxonomy

Species

See also

References