Argyronetidae

Cybaeus nipponicus, from here.

Belongs within: Neocribellatae.

The Argyronetidae is a Holarctic group of spiders including the water spider Argyroneta aquatica and related terrestrial species. Argyroneta aquatica is the most truly aquatic spider, constructing an underwater 'diving bell' of silk in which it traps a bubble of air that allows it to spend almost its entire life submerged, making only occasional visits to the surface to collect fresh air.

Characters (from Selden 2002): Legs with unnotched trochanters, three tarsal claws, single row of tarsal trichobothria; ecribellate; spinnerets not in a transverse row, anterior spinnerets closely spaced, posterior spinnerets narrowed with very short distal segment.

<==Argyronetidae [Cybaeidae]
    |  i. s.: Cybaeota S02
    |         Cybaeozyga S02
    |         Cybaeina minuta (Banks 1906) WZ08
    |--Argyronetinae [Argyroneteae] S02
    |    |  i. s.: Urquhartia Bryant 1933 S02
    |    |--Vectaraneus yulei Selden 2001 S02
    |    `--+--Elvina Thorell 1870 S02
    |       |    `--*E. antiqua (von Heyden 1859) [=Argyroneta antiqua] S02
    |       `--Argyroneta Latreille 1804 S02
    |            |--*A. aquatica (Clerck 1757) S02 [=Araneus aquaticus S02, Aranea aquatica L58]
    |            `--A. longipes Heer 1865 [=Argyronecta (l. c.) longipes] S02
    `--Cybaeus Koch 1868 MG03 [Cybaeae, Cybaeinae S02]
         |--C. abchasicus Charitonov 1947 MG03
         |--C. angustiarum Koch 1868 MG03
         |--C. hesper Chamberlin & Ivie 1932 S02
         |--C. hibaensis T07
         |--C. jilinensis (Song et al. 1993) WZ08
         |--C. nipponicus T07
         |--C. patritus Bishop & Crosby 1926 S02
         |--C. tetricus JD-S07
         `--C. tottoriensis T07

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[JD-S07] Jocqué, R., & A. S. Dippenaar-Schoeman. 2007. Spider Families of the World. Royal Museum for Central Africa: Tervuren (Belgium).

[L58] Linnaeus, C. 1758. Systema Naturae per Regna Tria Naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Tomus I. Editio decima, reformata. Laurentii Salvii: Holmiae.

[MG03] Marusik, Yu. M., & E. F. Guseinov. 2003. Spiders (Arachnida: Aranei) of Azerbaijan. 1. New family and genus records. Arthropoda Selecta 12 (1): 29–46.

[S02] Selden, P. A. 2002. Missing links between Argyroneta and Cybaeidae revealed by fossil spiders. Journal of Arachnology 30 (2): 189–200.

[T07] Tsurusaki, N. 2007. The Chugoku Mountains—a hotspot of geographical differentiation of species. Taxa 22: 3–14.

[WZ08] Wang, X.-P., & M.-S. Zhu. 2008. Himalmartensus, a new genus of the spider family Amaurobiidae from Nepal (Araneae). Journal of Arachnology 36 (2): 241–250.

Last updated: 7 October 2019.