Anapidae

Quality 0.50 · 2 views · Updated 2 months ago

Family of spiders

title: "Anapidae" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["anapidae", "araneomorphae-families", "cosmopolitan-spiders", "taxa-named-by-eugène-simon"] description: "Family of spiders" topic_path: "general/anapidae" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anapidae" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Family of spiders ::

| fossil_range = | image = Conoculus.lyugadinus.female.-.tanikawa.jpg | image_caption = C. lyugadinus, female from Okinawa | image2 = Conoculus.lyugadinus.male.-.tanikawa.jpg | image2_caption = C. lyugadinus, male | taxon = Anapidae | authority = Simon, 1895 | diversity = 59 genera, 233 species | synonyms = Micropholcommatidae

Holarchaeidae | range_map = Anapidae range map.svg | range_map_caption = blue: reported countries (WSC)

Anapidae is a family of rather small spiders with 233 described extant species in 59 genera. It includes the former family Micropholcommatidae as the subfamily Micropholcommatinae, and the former family Holarchaeidae. Most species are less than 2 mm long.

They generally live in leaf litter and moss on the floor of rain forest. Many build orb webs with a diameter less than 3 cm. In some species, such as Pseudanapis parocula, the pedipalps of the female are reduced to coxal stumps.

Description

Dippenaaria luxurians side view 01.jpg|Dippenaaria luxurians Dippenaaria luxurians dorsal view.jpg|D. luxurians

Spiders of this family are very small, usually less than two millimeters long, and lack a cribellum. They can have zero, six or eight eyes, the rear median eyes either reduced or missing. One species: 'Epigastrina typhlops' (Rix & Harvey, 2010) has no eyes, an adaption to life underground. In some genera the carapace is modified so that the eyes are raised higher than usual. Color can range from reddish brown, yellowish brown to pale, pigment reduced, creams. Generally both margins of chelicerae have teeth, one exception being 'Acrobleps hygrophilus' who lacks retromarginal teeth. The legs are short and spineless, though there are some with reduced spination such as the genus: 'Teutoniella' or with only one or two long spines such as 'Borneanapis'). The labium has a spur that extends between the chelicerae and can be seen when the chelicerae are spread.

Distribution

Anapidae are found worldwide, particularly in South America, Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Few genera occur in North America or Europe. Only Comaroma simoni and the three species of Zangherella are found in Europe; Gertschanapis shantzi and Comaroma mendocino are found in the United States.

Systematics

Novanapis spinipes male dorsal.jpg|male Novanapis spinipes Novanapis spinipes male lateral.jpg|male N. spinipes

The family Micropholcommatidae was synonymized with this family by Schütt in 2003 and by Lopa et al. in 2011, a change that has been accepted by the World Spider Catalog. Similarly, the family Holarchaeidae was synonymized by Dimitrov et al. in 2017, and likewise accepted by the World Spider Catalog.

Genera

, this family includes 59 genera and 233 species:

There are also genera only known as fossils, typically in Baltic amber: | † Balticoroma | Wunderlich, 2004 | † Balticonopsis | Wunderlich, 2004 | † Cenotextricella | Penney in Penney et al., 2007 | † Deanoorapsis | Penney, 2020 | † Dubianapis | Wunderlich, 2004 | † Flagellanapis | Wunderlich, 2004 | † Fossilanapis | Wunderlich, 2004 | † Palaeoanapis | Wunderlich, 1988 | † Ruganapis | Wunderlich, 2004 | † Saxonanapis | Wunderlich, 2004 | † Tuberanapis | Wunderlich, 2004

References

References

  1. "Family: Anapidae Simon, 1895". World Spider Catalog.
  2. "NMBE - World Spider Catalog".
  3. "Family: Holarchaeidae Forster & Platnick, 1984". Natural History Museum Bern.
  4. https://britishspiders.org.uk/system/files/library/140907.pdf {{Bare URL PDF. (August 2025)
  5. (2023). "A summary list of fossil spiders and their relatives, version 23.5". Natural History Museum Bern.
  6. "Epigastrina typhlops sp. n. from the Mole Creek karst, Tasmania. A, C... | Download Scientific Diagram".
  7. (2014). "Systematics, Phylogeny, and Evolution of Orb-Weaving Spiders". Annual Review of Entomology.
  8. (2011). "Morphology to the rescue: molecular data and the signal of morphological characters in combined phylogenetic analyses — a case study from mysmenid spiders (Araneae, Mysmenidae), with comments on the evolution of web architecture". Cladistics.
  9. (2000). "An introduction to the spiders of South East Asia with notes on all the genera". Malaysian Nature Society Kuala Lumpur.
  10. (2003). "Phylogeny of Symphytognathidae". Zoologica Scripta.
  11. (1999). "The Spiders of China". Hebei University of Science and Technology, Publishing House.
  12. (2008). "Phylogenetic placement of the Tasmanian spider ''Acrobleps hygrophilus'' (Araneae, Anapidae) with comments on the evolution of the capture web in Araneoidea". Cladistics.
  13. (1986). "On Teutoniella, an American genus of the spider family Micropholcommatidae (Araneae, Palpimanoidea)".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

anapidaearaneomorphae-familiescosmopolitan-spiderstaxa-named-by-eugène-simon