Dictynidae

Female Dictyna arundinacea, copyright Robin Rigby.

Belongs within: Neocribellatae.

The Dictynidae are a varied group of spiders found worldwide. The Dictyninae construct mesh-like webs on vegetation whereas the Cicurininae and Tricholathysinae are ground-dwellers. The Cicurininae have a reduced cribellum and reduced anterior median eyes. The cribellum is bipartite in the remaining subfamilies. Tricholathysinae have a pear-shaped carapace and elongate abdomen (Jocqué & Dippenaar-Schoeman 2007).

Characters (from Jocqué & Dippenaar-Schoeman 2007): Small; six or eight eyes present (anterior median eyes reduced in Cicurininae); endites converging; legs with three tarsal claws; calamistrum uniseriate; branched tracheae; cribellate, with cribellum wide, or with cribellum reduced; entelegyne.

<==Dictynidae
    |--Cicurininae GC99
    |    |--Cicurina JD-S07
    |    |    |--C. brevis JVHN90
    |    |    `--C. cicur (Fabricius 1793) SL14
    |    `--Lathys Sim. 1884 GC99, KK90
    |         |--L. alba Koch & Keyserling 1890 KK90
    |         |--L. humilis (Blackwall 1855) S02 [=Lethia humilis V09]
    |         `--L. maculata Koch & Keyserling 1890 KK90
    `--+--Tricholathys [Tricholathysinae] GC99
       |    `--T. spiralis Chamberlin & Ivie 1935 S02
       `--Dictyninae GC99
            |--Nigma walckenaeri GC99, V09
            `--Dictyna Sundevall 1833 JD-S07
                 |--D. arundinacea Linnaeus 1758 S02
                 |--D. brevitarsa Emerton 1915 PS08
                 |--D. calcarata Banks 1904 S02
                 |--D. civica E95
                 |--D. innocens P.-Cambridge 1872 S02
                 |--D. latens E95
                 |--D. minuta JVHN90
                 |--D. phylax JDW90
                 |--D. procera Kulczyński 1901 K01
                 |--D. pusilla V09
                 |--D. reticulata Gertsch & Ivie 1936 S02
                 |--D. uncinata Thorell 1856 S02
                 |--D. urquharti Roewer 1951 (n. d.) PVD10 [=Linyphia decolora Urquhart 1894 NS00]
                 |--D. volucripes E95
                 `--D. volupis E95

Dictynidae incertae sedis:
  Archaeodictyna ulova Griswold & Meikle-Griswold 1987 A02
  Devade Simon 1884 S02
  Mallos JD-S07
    |--M. gregalis JD-S07
    |--M. pallidus Banks 1904 S02
    `--M. trivittatus E95
  Viridictyna Forster 1970 PVD10
    |--*V. kikkawai Forster 1970 PVD10
    |--V. australis Forster 1970 PVD10
    |--V. nelsonensis Forster 1970 PVD10
    |--V. parva Forster 1970 PVD10
    `--V. picata Forster 1970 PVD10
  Paradictyna Forster 1970 PVD10
    |--*P. rufoflava (Chamberlain 1946) PVD10
    `--P. ilamia Forster 1970 PVD10
  Arangina Lehtinen 1967 PVD10
    |--*A. cornigera (de Dalmas 1917) PVD10 [=Dictyna cornigera FF99]
    `--A. pluva Forster 1970 PVD10
  Emblyna annulipes (Blackwall 1846) PS08
  Aebutina GC99
  Mexitlia trivittata BS09
  Argenna D90
  Heterodictyna puella V09
  Sinodictyna fushunensis Hong 1982 S93
  Eolathys P92
  Hispaniolyna P92
  Palaeodictyna P92
  Palaeolathys P92
  Succinyna P92

*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.

[D90] Dondale, C. D. 1990. Litter Araneae (Araneida). In: Dindal, D. L. (ed.) Soil Biology Guide pp. 477–502. John Wiley & Sones: New York.

[E95] Elgar, M. A. 1995. The duration of copulation in spiders: comparative patterns. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 52: 1–11.

[FF99] Forster, R., & L. Forster. 1999. Spiders of New Zealand and their World-wide Kin. University of Otago Press: Dunedin (New Zealand).

[GC99] Griswold, C. E., J. A. Coddington, N. I. Platnick & R. R. Forster. 1999. Towards a phylogeny of entelegyne spiders (Araneae, Araneomorphae, Entelegynae). Journal of Arachnology 27: 53–63.

[JDW90] Jennings, D. T., J. B. Dimond & B. A. Watt. 1990. Population densities of spiders (Araneae) and spruce budworms (Lepidoptera, Tortricidae) on foliage of balsam fir and red spruce in east-central Maine. Journal of Arachnology 18: 181–194.

[JVHN90] Jennings, D. T., W. M. Vander Haegen & A. M. Narahara. 1990. A sampling of forest-floor spiders (Araneae) by expellant, Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge, Maine. Journal of Arachnology 18: 173–180.

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

[KK90] Koch, L., & E. Keyserling. 1884–1890. Die Arachniden Australiens nach der Natur beschrieben und abgebildet vol. 2. Bauer & Raspe: Nürnberg.

[K01] Kulczyński, V. 1901. Arachnoideák [Arachnoidea]. In: Horváth, G. (ed.) Zichy Jenő Gróf Harmadik Ázsiai Utazása [Dritte Asiatische Forschungsreise des Grafen Eugen Zichy] vol. 2. Zichy Jenő Gróf Harmadik Ázsiai Utazásának Állattani Eredményei [Zoologische Ergebnisse der Dritten Asiatischen Forschungsreise des Grafen Eugen Zichy] pp. 311–369. Victor Hornyánszky: Budapest, and Karl W. Hierseman: Leipzig.

[NS00] Nicholls, D. C., P. J. Sirvid, S. D. Pollard & M. Walker. 2000. A list of arachnid primary types held in Canterbury Museum. Records of the Canterbury Museum 14: 37–48.

[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).

[PS08] Pinzón, J., & J. Spence. 2008. Performance of two arboreal pitfall trap designs in sampling cursorial spiders from tree trunks. Journal of Arachnology 36 (2): 280–286.

[P92] Poinar, G. O., Jr. 1992. Life in Amber. Stanford University Press: Stanford.

[SL14] Samu, F., G. Lengyel, É. Szita, A. Bidló & P. Ódor. 2014. The effect of forest stand characteristics on spider diversity and species composition in deciduous-coniferous mixed forests. Journal of Arachnology 42 (2): 135–141.

[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.

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

[V09] Verdcourt, B. (ed.) 2009. Additions to the Wild Fauna and Flora of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. XXVI. Miscellaneous records. Kew Bulletin 64 (1): 183–194.

Last updated: 24 January 2022.