Family IDIOPIDAE Simon, 1889

An idiopid

© Copyright Curtis Morton

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Introduction

The Idiopidae were long included in the Ctenizidae until a revision of the infraorder Mygalomorphae (Raven 1985). They are most diverse in Australia, with an estimated total of over 100 species. The family also occurs in New Zealand, Africa, India, Madagascar, South-East Asia and South America. They build tubes in the ground which in many cases they are closed by a trapdoor. They have radiated extensively throughout Australia, exploiting habitats from desert, rainforest, to snow-covered mountains in Tasmania, but are very rare in Australia's far north. Rix et al. (2017) revised the family, particularly, moving many species from Misgolas to Arbanitis.

Diagnosis

Differ from the Ctenizidae by males having a distal haematodocha extending down almost to the embolus, thus transforming the distal sclerite into an open scoop rather than a cone; by the bilobed palpal tarsus with one blunt and one acutely pointed lobe; and from the Cyrtaucheniidae by the domed apical segment of the posterior lateral spinnerets.
Mygalomorph spiders with outer surface of cheliceral fang smooth. Females with teeth of paired claws similar in size and number. Labiosternal suture a shallow groove. Serrula absent. Anterior lobe of maxillae small.

Diagnosis References

Raven, R.J. 1985. The spider infraorder Mygalomorphae (Araneae): Cladistics and Systematics. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 182(1): 1-180 [Date published December 5, 1985] [137]

General References

Raven, R.J. 1985. The spider infraorder Mygalomorphae (Araneae): Cladistics and Systematics. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 182(1): 1-180 [Date published December 5, 1985]

Rix, M.G., Raven, R.J., Main, B.Y., Harrison, S., Austin, A.D., Cooper, S.J.B. & Harvey, M.S. 2017. The Australasian spiny trapdoor spiders of the family Idiopidae (Mygalomorphae : Arbanitinae): a relimitation and revision at the generic level. Invertebrate Systematics 31: 566–634

History of changes