Pimoidae is a small family of

araneomorph The Araneomorphae (also called the Labidognatha) are an infraorder of spiders. They are distinguishable by chelicerae (fangs) that point diagonally forward and cross in a pinching action, in contrast to the Mygalomorphae (tarantulas and their cl ...

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 first described by J. Wunderlich in 1986. As re-circumscribed in 2021, it is

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

, and contained 85 species in two genera. It is closely related to the

Linyphiidae Linyphiidae, spiders commonly known as sheet weavers (from the shape of their webs), or money spiders (in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and in Portugal, from the superstition that if such a spider is seen running on you, ...

, and is sometimes treated as synonymous with that family. The species ''

Pimoa cthulhu ''Pimoa cthulhu'' is a species of the spider family Pimoidae. It is one of twenty-one described species in the genus '' Pimoa''. Etymology ''Pimoa'' is derived from the language of the Gosiute people in Utah and means "big legs". Gustavo Hormig ...

'', described by Gustavo Hormiga in 1994, is named for Howard Phillips Lovecraft's mythological deity

Cthulhu Cthulhu is a fictional cosmic entity created by writer H. P. Lovecraft. It was first introduced in his short story "The Call of Cthulhu", published by the American pulp magazine ''Weird Tales'' in 1928. Considered a Great Old One within the pan ...

Distribution

The ancestors of the family are thought to have been widely distributed across the

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

Nearctic The Nearctic realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting the Earth's land surface. The Nearctic realm covers most of North America, including Greenland, Central Florida, and the highlands of Mexico. The parts of North America t ...

and Sino-Japanese regions, but species now have a more fragmented distribution.

Genera and species

, 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 and species: *'' Nanoa'' Hormiga, Buckle & Scharff, 2005 **'' Nanoa enana'' Hormiga, Buckle & Scharff, 2005 — USA *'' Pimoa'' Chamberlin & Ivie, 1943 — North America, Asia, Europe **'' Pimoa altioculata'' (Keyserling, 1886) – USA, Canada **'' Pimoa anatolica'' Hormiga, 1994 – China **'' Pimoa anning'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – China **'' Pimoa binchuanensis'' Zhang & Li, 2019 – China **'' Pimoa bomi'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – China **'' Pimoa breuili'' (Fage, 1931) – Spain **'' Pimoa breviata'' Chamberlin & Ivie, 1943 – USA **'' Pimoa cawarong'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – China **'' Pimoa clavata'' Xu & Li, 2007 – China **'' Pimoa cona'' Zhang & Li, 2020 – China **'' Pimoa crispa'' (Fage, 1946) – India **''

'' Hormiga, 1994 – USA **'' Pimoa curvata'' Chamberlin & Ivie, 1943 – USA **'' Pimoa daman'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – Nepal **'' Pimoa danba'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – China **'' Pimoa delphinica'' Mammola, Hormiga & Isaia, 2016 – Italy **'' Pimoa deqen'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – China **'' Pimoa dongjiu'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – China **'' Pimoa duiba'' Zhang & Li, 2020 – China **'' Pimoa edenticulata'' Hormiga, 1994 – USA **'' Pimoa exigua'' Irfan, Wang & Zhang, 2021 – China **'' Pimoa gagna'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – India **'' Pimoa gandhii'' Hormiga, 1994 – India **'' Pimoa graphitica'' Mammola, Hormiga & Isaia, 2016 – Italy, France **'' Pimoa guiqing'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – China **'' Pimoa gyaca'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – China **'' Pimoa gyara'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – China **'' Pimoa gyirong'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – China **'' Pimoa haden'' Chamberlin & Ivie, 1943 – USA **'' Pimoa heishui'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – China **'' Pimoa hespera'' (Gertsch & Ivie, 1936) (

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 ...

) – USA **'' Pimoa indiscreta'' Hormiga, 1994 – India **'' Pimoa jellisoni'' (Gertsch & Ivie, 1936) – USA **'' Pimoa jinchuan'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – China **'' Pimoa khaptad'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – Nepal **'' Pimoa koshi'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – Nepal **'' Pimoa lata'' Xu & Li, 2009 – China **'' Pimoa laurae'' Hormiga, 1994 – USA **'' Pimoa lemenba'' Zhang & Li, 2020 – China **'' Pimoa lhatog'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – China **'' Pimoa lihengae'' Griswold, Long & Hormiga, 1999 – China **'' Pimoa mainling'' Zhang & Li, 2020 – China **'' Pimoa mechi'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – Nepal **'' Pimoa mephitis'' Hormiga, 1994 – USA **'' Pimoa miandam'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – Pakistan **'' Pimoa miero'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – China **'' Pimoa mono'' Hormiga, 1994 – USA **'' Pimoa mude'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – Nepal **'' Pimoa muli'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – China **'' Pimoa nainital'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – India **'' Pimoa naran'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – Pakistan **'' Pimoa nematoides'' Hormiga, 1994 – Nepal **'' Pimoa ninglang'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – China **'' Pimoa nyalam'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – China **'' Pimoa nyingchi'' Zhang & Li, 2020 – China **'' Pimoa petita'' Hormiga, 1994 – USA **'' Pimoa phaplu'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – Nepal **'' Pimoa pingwuensis'' Irfan, Wang, Zhao & Zhang, 2022 – China **'' Pimoa putou'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – China **'' Pimoa rara'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – Nepal **'' Pimoa reniformis'' Xu & Li, 2007 – China **'' Pimoa rongxar'' Zhang & Li, 2020 – China **'' Pimoa rupicola'' (Simon, 1884) – France, Italy **'' Pimoa samyai'' Zhang & Li, 2020 – China **'' Pimoa sangri'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – China **'' Pimoa shigatse'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – China **'' Pimoa shoja'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – India **'' Pimoa sinuosa'' Hormiga, 1994 – Nepal **'' Pimoa tehama'' Hormiga & Lew, 2014 – USA **'' Pimoa tengchong'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – China **'' Pimoa thaleri'' Trotta, 2009 – India **'' Pimoa trifurcata'' Xu & Li, 2007 – China **''

Pimoa vera ''Pimoa'' is a genus of spiders in the family Pimoidae. Its sister genus is '' Nanoa''. Etymology ''Pimoa'' is derived from the language of the Gosiute people in Utah with the meaning "big legs". The other genera in the family match its ending ...

'' Gertsch, 1951 – USA **'' Pimoa wanglangensis'' Yuan, Zhao & Zhang, 2019 – China **'' Pimoa wulipoensis'' Irfan, Wang & Zhang, 2021 – China **'' Pimoa xiahe'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – China **'' Pimoa xinjianensis'' Zhang & Li, 2019 – China **'' Pimoa yadong'' Zhang & Li, 2020 – China **'' Pimoa yajiangensis'' Irfan, Wang, Zhao & Zhang, 2022 – China **'' Pimoa yejiei'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – China **'' Pimoa yele'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – China **'' Pimoa zayu'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – China **'' Pimoa zekogensis'' Irfan, Wang, Zhao & Zhang, 2022 – China **'' Pimoa zhigangi'' Zhang & Li, 2021 – China

References

Araneomorphae families {{Araneomorphae-stub