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Trapdoor spider is a
common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contra ...
that is used to refer to various
spiders 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 di ...
from several different groups that create burrows with a silk-hinged trapdoor to help them ambush prey. Several families within the infraorder
Mygalomorphae 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 ...
contain trapdoor spiders: *
Actinopodidae Actinopodidae ( Mouse spiders) is a family of mygalomorph orb weaver spiders found in mainland Australia and South America usually in open forest. Species are most common in Queensland, Australia. It includes mouse spiders, whose bites, though r ...
, a family otherwise known as 'mouse-spiders', in South America and Australia *
Antrodiaetidae Antrodiaetidae, also known as folding trapdoor spiders or folding-door spiders, is a small spider family related to atypical tarantulas. They are found almost exclusively in the western and midwestern United States, from California to Washington ...
, a family of 'folding trapdoor spiders' from the USA and Japan *
Barychelidae Barychelidae, also known as brushed trapdoor spiders, is a spider family with about 300 species in 42 genera. Most spiders in this family build trapdoor burrows. For example, the long ''Sipalolasma'' builds its burrow in rotted wood, with a hinge ...
, a family of 'brush-footed trapdoor spiders' with pantropical distribution *
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 ...
, a family of ' cork-lid trapdoor spiders' in
tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...
and subtropical regions *
Cyrtaucheniidae The wafer trapdoor spiders, family Cyrtaucheniidae, are a widespread family of spiders that lack the thorn-like spines on tarsi and metatarsi I and II (the two outermost leg segments) found in true trapdoor spiders (Ctenizidae). Etymology Th ...
, a family of 'wafer-lid trapdoor spiders, with wide distribution except cooler regions * Euctenizidae, a family of spiders that make wafer-like or cork-like trapdoors * Halonoproctidae, a family of spiders that make wafer-like or cork-like trapdoors and includes the phragmotic genus '' Cyclocosmia'' * Idiopidae, a family of 'spurred-trapdoor spiders' or 'armoured trapdoors' mostly in Southern Hemisphere * Migidae, also known as 'ridge fanged trapdoor spiders' or 'tree trapdoor spiders', in the Southern Hemisphere * Nemesiidae, a family of 'tube trapdoor spiders', with both tropical and
temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout t ...
species worldwide * Theraphosidae, a family of tarantulas (where just a few species make trapdoors), also with wide distribution There is also one family of trapdoor spiders in the suborder
Mesothelae The Mesothelae are a suborder of spiders (order Araneae) that includes a single extant family, Liphistiidae, and a number of extinct families. This suborder is thought to form the sister group to all other living spiders, and to retain ancestral ...
: *
Liphistiidae The spider family Liphistiidae, recognized by Tamerlan Thorell in 1869, comprises 8 genus, genera and about 100 species of medium-sized spiders from Southeast Asia, China, and Japan. They are among the most Basal (phylogenetics), basal living spi ...
, an unusual and unique family of spiders with armoured abdomens from Southeast Asia, China and Japan {{Set index article, animals Set index articles on spiders Set index articles on animal common names