Family ORSOLOBIDAE Cook, 1965

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Introduction

These pallid, small spiders are usually found in litter of high altitude rainforests.

Diagnosis

Orsolobids are small, 6-eyed spiders with the pedal claws set upon an onychium and an elevated tarsal organ. They most closely resemble the Oonopidae from which they differ by the unmodified maxillae morphology — oonopids possess distally pointed maxillae. Most orsolobids are soft-bodied, although many members of the New Zealand genus Duripelta possess dorsal and ventral abdominal scutes. Pale, medium-sized, 6-eyed spiders with a pair of posterior spiracles just behind the book-lungs. Vulva haplogyne, occasionally sclerotised. Onychium with spatulate hairs; superior claws large with two rows of teeth and expanded into wing-like projections on the outer side; inferior claw absent, sometimes represented by pad below claws. Colulus present. Cheliceral margins usually with one to two teeth. One trichobothrium on metatarsi, none on tarsi. Main synapomorphy is the elevated tarsal organ.

History of changes