Tetrablemmidae, sometimes called armored spiders, is a family of tropical

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

Octavius Pickard-Cambridge Octavius Pickard-Cambridge Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (3 November 1828 – 9 March 1917) was an England, English clergyman and zoologist. He was a keen arachnologist who described and named more than 900 species of spider. Life and wor ...

in 1873. It contains 126 described species in 29 genera from southeast Asia, with a few that occur in Africa and Central and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

Pacullidae Pacullidae is a family of araneomorph spiders first described by Eugène Simon in 1894. It was merged into Tetrablemmidae in 1958, then raised back to family status after a large phylogenetic study in 2017. Description The family Pacullidae cont ...

was incorporated into this family in 1981, but was later restored as a separate family in a 2016 phylogenetic study. Most species have been collected from litter and soil, including that of

epiphyte An epiphyte is an organism that grows on the surface of a plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphytes grow are called phoroph ...

s. Some live in caves and show typical adaptations of cave spiders, such as loss of eyes and weak

sclerotization Sclerotization is a biochemical process that produces the rigid shell of sclerotin that comprises an insect's chitinous exoskeleton. It is prominent in the thicker, armored parts of insects and arachnids, especially in the biting mouthparts and scle ...

. Members of '' Tetrablemma'' only have four eyes, a trait in spiders only found in these and certain members of

Caponiidae Caponiidae is a family of ecribellate haplogyne spiders that are unusual in a number of ways. They differ from other spiders in lacking book lungs and having the posterior median spinnerets anteriorly displaced to form a transverse row with the a ...

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 ...

accepts the following genera: *'' Ablemma'' Roewer, 1963 — Papua New Guinea, Asia *'' Afroblemma'' Lehtinen, 1981 — Angola, Tanzania, Congo *'' Anansia'' Lehtinen, 1981 — Angola *'' Bacillemma'' Deeleman-Reinhold, 1993 — Thailand *'' Borneomma'' Deeleman-Reinhold, 1980 — Indonesia *'' Brignoliella'' Shear, 1978 — Asia, Oceania *'' Caraimatta'' Lehtinen, 1981 — Mexico, Caribbean, Central America *'' Choiroblemma'' Bourne, 1980 — India *'' Cuangoblemma'' Brignoli, 1974 — Angola *'' Fallablemma'' Shear, 1978 — Samoa, Indonesia *'' Gunasekara'' Lehtinen, 1981 — Sri Lanka *'' Hexablemma'' Berland, 1920 — Kenya *'' Indicoblemma'' Bourne, 1980 — China, Thailand, India *'' Lehtinenia'' Tong & Li, 2008 — China *'' Maijana'' Lehtinen, 1981 — Indonesia *'' Mariblemma'' Lehtinen, 1981 — Seychelles *'' Matta'' Crosby, 1934 — Brazil, Mexico *'' Micromatta'' Lehtinen, 1981 — Belize *'' Monoblemma'' Gertsch, 1941 — South America, Madagascar, Panama *'' Pahanga'' Shear, 1979 — Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia *'' Rhinoblemma'' Lehtinen, 1981 — Caroline Is. *''

Shearella ''Shearella'' is a genus of Asian araneomorph spiders in the family Tetrablemmidae that was first described by Pekka T. Lehtinen in 1981. Species it contains four species, found in Asia: *'' Shearella alii'' Sankaran & Sebastian, 2016 – Indi ...

'' Lehtinen, 1981 — India, Sri Lanka, China *'' Sinamma'' Lin & Li, 2014 — China *'' Singalangia'' Lehtinen, 1981 — Indonesia *'' Singaporemma'' Shear, 1978 — Asia *'' Sulaimania'' Lehtinen, 1981 — Singapore, Malaysia *'' Tetrablemma'' O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1873 — Oceania, Africa, Asia, Trinidad

Extinct genera

* †'' Balticoblemma'' Wunderlich 2004

Bitterfeld Bitterfeld () is a town in the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 July 2007 it has been part of the town of Bitterfeld-Wolfen. It is situated approximately 25 km south of Dessau, and 30 km northeast of Halle (S ...

Baltic amber The Baltic region is home to the largest known deposit of amber, called Baltic amber or succinite. It was produced sometime during the Eocene epoch, but exactly when is controversial. It has been estimated that these forests created more than 1 ...

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...

* †'' Bicornoculus'' Wunderlich 2015

Burmese amber Burmese amber, also known as Burmite or Kachin amber, is amber from the Hukawng Valley in northern Myanmar. The amber is dated to around 100 million years ago, during the latest Albian to earliest Cenomanian ages of the mid-Cretaceous period. The ...

, Myanmar,

Cenomanian The Cenomanian is, in the ICS' geological timescale, the oldest or earliest age of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or the lowest stage of the Upper Cretaceous Series. An age is a unit of geochronology; it is a unit of time; the stage is a unit in the s ...

* †'' Brignoliblemma'' Wunderlich 2017 Burmese amber, Myanmar, Cenomanian * †'' Cymbioblemma'' Wunderlich 2017 Burmese amber, Myanmar, Cenomanian * †'' Electroblemma'' Selden et al. 2016 Burmese amber, Myanmar, Cenomanian * †'' Eogamasomorpha'' Wunderlich 2008 Burmese amber, Myanmar, Cenomanian * †'' Longissithorax'' Wunderlich 2017 Burmese amber, Myanmar, Cenomanian * †'' Longithorax'' Wunderlich 2017 Burmese amber, Myanmar, Cenomanian * †'' Palpalpaculla'' Wunderlich 2017 Burmese amber, Myanmar, Cenomanian * †'' Saetosoma'' Wunderlich 2012 Burmese amber, Myanmar, Cenomanian * †'' Uniscutosoma'' Wunderlich 2015 Burmese amber, Myanmar, Cenomanian

References

External links

*Tetrablemmidae Armoured Spider
Tetrablemmidae at arachne.org.au
Araneomorphae families Taxa named by Octavius Pickard-Cambridge {{Tetrablemmidae-stub

Genera

Extinct genera

See also

References

External links