Family AMAUROBIIDAE Thorell, 1870

Museums

Regional Maps

Introduction

The Amaurobiiidae are small to medium-sized entelegyne spiders that traditionally build expansive sheet webs across the floor of rainforests. As with many families in Australia, the boundaries of the Amaurobiidae are unclear as the genera merge into those often included in the Agelenidae, Desidae or lately the Amphinectidae. That imprecise boundary may help explain why the group is so diverse and, probably, in Australia reaches numbers rivalling the Money Spiders (Linyphiidae) of Europe. Many species and genera remain to be described.

Excluded Taxa

Misidentifications

Amaurobiidae: Otira Forster & Wilton, 1973 — Milledge, G.A. 2011. A revision of Storenosoma Hogg and description of a new genus, Oztira (Araneae: Amaurobiidae). Records of the Australian Museum 63(1): 1–32

Diagnosis

Small to medium-sized entelegyne spiders that traditionally build expansive sheet webs across the floor of rainforests. Eight similar eyes in two conservatively curved rows. Three claws, usually with a calamistrum on metatarsus IV associated with a cribellum. Amaurobiids may be distinguished from Amphinectidae by the absence of a pre-tarsal fracture and the presence of a retrocoxal hymen on coxa I.

History of changes