Anapidae

Comaroma simoni, copyright Pierre Oger.

Belongs within: Araneoidea.

The Anapidae are a group of minute spiders found in litter and moss, usually in moist forests. Many species construct small horizontal orb webs (Jocqué & Dippenaar-Schoeman 2007). Females lack palpi and also have secondarily haplogyne genitalia without surface expression on the abdomen (Paquin et al. 2010).

Characters (from Jocqué & Dippenaar-Schoeman 2007): Body size <2 mm. Carapace with ocular region elevated; pedicel arising from circular rimmed cavity on posterior declivity; glandular openings often present, situated in hollow pits on edge of carapace at anterolateral corners. Six or eight eyes present; anterior median eyes often reduced or absent; other eyes arranged in three pairs. Chelicerae with teeth on both margins. Labrum bearing anterior spur projecting forward between chelicerae, sometimes reduced to a small crest. Female palp reduced in size or absent, without claw. Sternum as broad as long, broadly fused to carapace. Relative leg lengths (longest to shortest) 4123 or 1423; legs short, without spines; metatarsi shorter than tarsi; tarsi with three claws; tarsal organ capsulate and domed; femora I of male with short spine ventrally. Abdomen of male with large dorsal scutum, or two or three scuta, or dorsal region with scattered small sclerotised areas; ventral scutum surrounding pedicel. Abdomen of female soft or with small, brown sclerotised ring. Two booklungs present or anterior tracheae opening through spiracles on either side of genital opening. Anterior spinnerets small, close together; spinnerets together with colulus surrounded by a sclerotised ring; posterior lateral spinnerets with triplet of one flagelliform and two aggregate gland spigots in both sexes, aggregate gland spigot larger than accompanying flagelliform spigot; piriform gland spigots with reduced base. Genitalia haplogyne; spermathecae well separated; male palp variable, femur and patella sometimes with bristles or apophyses, embolus varying from spiniform to short and wide.

<==Anapidae [Amazulinae, Anapeae, Anapinae]
    |--Comaroma Bertkau 1889 S03
    |    `--C. simoni Bertkau 1889 S03
    `--+--Anapis Simon 1895 S03
       |    `--A. amazonas Platnick & Shadab 1978 S03
       `--Crozetulus Hickman 1939 S03
            |--*C. minutus Hickman 1939 H39
            `--C. rhodesiensis Brignoli 1981 S03

Anapidae incertae sedis:
  Sofanapis antillanca Platnick & Forster 1989 A02
  Crassanapis chilensis R14
  Pseudanapis Simon 1905 S03
    `--P. burra Forster 1959 W76
  Chasmocephalon O.P.-Cambridge 1889 S03
    `--C. crassifemoralis Wunderlich 1976 W76
  Anapisona S03
  Novanapis Platnick & Forster 1989 PVD10
    `--*N. spinipes Platnick & Forster 1989 PVD10
  Gertschanapis shantzi BS09
  Paranapis Platnick & Forster 1989 PVD10
    |--*P. insula (Forster 1951) PVD10
    `--P. isolata Platnick & Forster 1989 PVD10
  Zealanapis Platnick & Forster 1989 PVD10
    |--*Z. armata (Forster 1951) PVD10
    |--Z. australis (Forster 1951) PVD10
    |--Z. conica (Forster 1951) PVD10
    |--Z. insula Platnick & Forster 1989 PVD10
    |--Z. kuscheli Platnick & Forster 1989 PVD10
    |--Z. matua Platnick & Forster 1989 PVD10
    |--Z. montana Platnick & Forster 1989 PVD10
    |--Z. otago Platnick & Forster 1989 PVD10
    |--Z. punta Platnick & Forster 1989 PVD10
    `--Z. waipoua Platnick & Forster 1989 PVD10
  Palaeoanapis nana Wunderlich 1988 S93

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[A02] Agnarsson, I. 2002. Sharing a web—on the relation of sociality and kleptoparasitism in theridiid spiders (Theridiidae, Araneae). Journal of Arachnology 30 (2): 181–188.

[BS09] Blackledge, T. A., N. Scharff, J. A. Coddington, T. Szüts, J. W. Wenzel, C. Y. Hayashi & I. Agnarsson. 2009. Reconstructing web evolution and spider diversification in the molecular era. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 106 (13): 5229–5234.

[H39] Hickman, V. V. 1939. Opiliones and Araneae. British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition Reports Series B 4: 157–188.

[PVD10] Paquin, P., C. J. Vink & N. Dupérré. 2010. Spiders of New Zealand: annotated family key and species list. Manaaki Whenua Press: Lincoln (New Zealand).

[R14] Ramírez, M. J. 2014. The morphology and phylogeny of dionychan spiders (Araneae: Araneomorphae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 390: 1–374.

[S03] Schütt, K. 2003. Phylogeny of Symphytognathidae s.l. (Araneae, Araneoidea). Zoologica Scripta 32 (2): 129–151.

[S93] Selden, P. A. 1993. Arthropoda (Aglaspidida, Pycnogonida and Chelicerata). In: Benton, M. J. (ed.) The Fossil Record 2 pp. 297–320. Chapman & Hall: London.

[W76] Wunderlich, J. 1976. Spinnen aus Australien. 1. Uloboridae, Theridiosomatidae und Symphytognathidae (Arachnida: Araneida). Senckenbergiana Biologica 57 (1–3): 113–124.

Last updated: 15 January 2022.