Nicodamidae is a 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 ...
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 with about thirty species in seven genera.
They are small to medium-sized spiders found near the ground of eucalypt forest in small sheet webs. The species of this family are only present in Australia and Papua New Guinea. In most cases the cephalothorax and legs are uniformly red and the abdomen black, for which these species are sometimes called the "red and black spiders".
Taxonomy
The family Nicodamidae was established by
Eugène Simon
Eugène Louis Simon (; 30 April 1848 – 17 November 1924) was a French naturalist who worked particularly on insects and spiders, but also on birds and plants. He is by far the most prolific spider taxonomist in history, describing over 4 ...
in 1897 for his newly described species ''Nicodamus dimidiatus''
(now ''
Dimidamus dimidiatus'').
Mark Harvey
Mark Harvey (born 11 June 1965) is a former Australian rules football player and coach. He played over 200 games during fourteen seasons with the Essendon Football Club, winning three premierships, and was senior coach of Fremantle from 2007 t ...
published a major review of the family in 1995. At the time of the review, only two genera were accepted, ''
Nicodamus
''Nicodamus'' is a genus of small spiders known from Australia. They are often referred to as the red and black spiders. As of 2017 its two species include '' Nicodamus peregrinus'' and '' Nicodamus mainae''.
References
Spiders of Austr ...
'' from Australia and
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torres ...
, and ''
Megadictyna'' from New Zealand. Based on a morphological
cladistic analysis
Cladistics (; ) is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups ("clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is typically shared derived chara ...
, Harvey divided the family into two subfamilies, Nicodaminae and Megadictyninae, and erected seven new genera.
In 1967,
Pekka T. Lehtinen proposed that
Megadictynidae constituted a separate family, but this was not accepted by Harvey. On the basis of
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 ...
analysis, Dimitrov et al. re-established Megadictynidae in 2017, reducing Nicodamidae to seven genera.
[
]
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:Nicodamus
''Nicodamus'' is a genus of small spiders known from Australia. They are often referred to as the red and black spiders. As of 2017 its two species include '' Nicodamus peregrinus'' and '' Nicodamus mainae''.
References
Spiders of Austr ...
'' Simon, 1887 — Australia
*'' Novodamus'' Harvey, 1995 — Australia
*'' Oncodamus'' Harvey, 1995 — Australia
See also
* List of Nicodamidae species
References
External links
Picture of a ''Durodamus'' species
Araneomorphae families
{{Araneomorphae-stub