''Macrothele'' is a
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
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
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 area ...
, 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
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, 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 List ...
, 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 Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
.
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 peri ...
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
mygalomorph spiders by their larger posterior
sigillae on the
sternum, and the arrangement of the rows of teeth on the margin of the
chelicerae: 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
Anton Ausserer (5 July 184320 July 1889)Maurer, Ferdinand: ''Nachruf an Dr. Anton Ausserer.'' Programm des kk. acad. Gymnasiums in Grätz. Graz 1890 was an Austrian naturalist specialising in spiders.Bonnet, Pierre: Bibliographia aranearum, Les ...
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 specimen ...
being ''
Macrothele calpeiana
''Macrothele calpeiana'', commonly known as the Gibraltar funnel-web spider or Spanish funnel-web spider, is one of the largest spider
Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs gener ...
'', formerly ''Mygale calpeiana''.
Ausserer placed the genus in the then very broadly defined family
Theraphosidae. 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 before being transferred to the Macrothelidae in 2018.
A
molecular phylogenetic
Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...
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 shows the possible relationship of ''Macrothele'' to related taxa:
Species
, it contains 42 species and one subspecies from
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 ...
,
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 area ...
and
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 Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
:
*''
Macrothele abrupta
''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 ...
''
Benoit, 1965 – Congo
*''
Macrothele alyrata
''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 ...
''
(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
''Macrothele calpeiana'', commonly known as the Gibraltar funnel-web spider or Spanish funnel-web spider, is one of the largest spider
Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs gener ...
''
(Walckenaer, 1805) (
type
Type may refer to:
Science and technology Computing
* Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc.
* Data type, collection of values used for computations.
* File type
* TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file.
* Ty ...
) – Southern Europe, North Africa
*''
Macrothele camerunensis''
Simon, 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 Pocock is a surname, and may refer to:
*Andrew Pocock (born 1955), British High Commissioner to Nigeria
* Barbara Pocock, one of the candidates of the 2022 Australian federal election
* Bill Pocock (1884–1959), English footballer
* Blair 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''
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
''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 ...
''
Simon, 1906 – India
*''
Macrothele washanensis
''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 ...
''
Wu & Z. Z. Yang, 2022 – China
*''
Macrothele wuliangensis
''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 ...
''
Wu & Z. Z. Yang, 2022 – China
*''
Macrothele yaginumai
''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 ...
''
Shimojana & Haupt, 1998 – Japan (Ryukyu Is.)
*''
Macrothele yani
''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 ...
''
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 ...
''
Z. B. Yang, Zhao & Z. Z. Yang, 2019 – China
*''
Macrothele yunlingensis
''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 ...
''
Z. B. Yang, Zhao & Z. Z. Yang, 2019 – China
See also
*
Raventoxin Raventoxins are neurotoxins from the venom of the spider '' Macrothele raveni''.
Sources
Raventoxins are toxins from the venom of the spider ''Macrothele raveni''. This is a hairy spider, a member of the genus ''Macrothele'', that can be found in ...
References
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q98876, from2=Q53536229
Macrothelidae
Mygalomorphae genera
Spiders of Asia
Spiders of Africa