Udubidae is a

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

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 ...

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, most of whose members were formerly placed in the family Zorocratidae, which is no longer accepted.

Phylogeny

A study investigating the

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

relationships of lycosoid spiders concluded that the genera formerly placed in the family Zorocratidae fell into two groups. The largest group formed the sister clade to the "grate-shaped tapetum clade" (see the

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 ...

below). The

type genus In biological taxonomy, the type genus is the genus which defines a biological family and the root of the family name. Zoological nomenclature According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "The name-bearing type of a nominal ...

, '' Zorocrates'', grouped with '' Zoropsis'' inside the grate-shaped tapetum clade. Some earlier studies had also cast doubt on the

monophyly 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 ...

of the Zorocratidae. A 2003 study found that ''Raecius'', ''Uduba'', and ''Zorodictyna'' formed a clade somewhat separated from ''Zorocrates''. A 2014 study including ''Zorocrates'' and ''Raecius'' did not find that they grouped together., p. 289 Moving the type genus to a different family meant that a new family name was needed for the remaining members. Griswold and Polotow proposed "Udubidae", with the type genus ''Uduba''. , 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 this family. A summary phylogeny is shown below. (Shading marks genera formerly placed in Zorocratidae.)

Genera

, the

accepts the following genera: *'' Campostichomma'' Karsch, 1892 – Sri Lanka – 4 species *'' Raecius'' Simon, 1892 – Africa (

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

) – 6 species *'' Uduba'' Simon, 1880 –

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

– 3 species *'' Zorodictyna'' Strand, 1907 – Madagascar – 2 species

References

Araneomorphae families {{Udubidae-stub