Family FILISTATIDAE Ausserer, 1867

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FILISTATIDAE: Pritha Lehtinen, 1967 [when Pritha australiensis (L. Koch, 1873) was moved into the genus Wandella by Gray (1994), this genus no long contained any Australian taxa] — Lehtinen, P.T. 1967. Classification of the cribellate spiders and some allied families, with notes on the evolution of the suborder Araneomorpha. Annales Zoologici Fennici 4: 199-468 [300] (type species: Filistata nana Simon, 1868 by monotypy); Gray, M.R. 1994. A review of the filistatid spiders (Araneae: Filistatidae) of Australia. Records of the Australian Museum 46: 39-61

Diagnosis

The Filistatidae can be easily distinguished from other Australasian spiders by the following combination of characters: three claws; a cribellum with two fields; one pair of book-lungs; the calamistrum a disordered field of hairs; the tracheal spiracle set well forward of the spinnerets; and labium long and pointed. Cribellate, 3-clawed spiders with simple haplogyne vulva. Calamistrum short and proximal. Lamellate chelicerae fused at base. Eyes in two rows, in cluster well back on carapace. Labium long and pointed, fused to sternum. Maxillae long, converging and meeting over labium. Wide spiracle well forward of sub-terminal spinnerets. Two or more trichobothria on metatarsi, none on tarsi. Autospasy common at tibial-patellar joint.

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