Austrochiloidea

Macrogradungula moonya, copyright Szűts Tamás.

Belongs within: Neocribellatae.

The Austrochiloidea are a clade of araneomorph spiders found in southern South America and Australasia that retain two pairs of spiracular openings, with the posterior book-lungs often modified into tracheae. The Australasian Gradungulidae are characterised by strongly dissimilar claws on the first two pairs of legs, together with numerous ventral spines on the tarsi. The tarsal claws are equal in members of the Austrochilidae, found in southern South America and Tasmania (Jocqué & Dippenaar-Schoeman 2007).

<==Austrochiloidea JD-S07
    |--Austrochilidae [Hickmaniidae] JD-S07
    |    |--Hickmania Gertsch 1985 [Hickmaniinae] JD-S07
    |    |    `--H. troglodytes [=Theridion troglodytes] FF99
    |    `--Austrochilinae JD-S07
    |         |--Thaida Karsch 1880 JD-S07
    |         |    `--T. peculiaris R14
    |         `--Austrochilus Gertsch & Zapfe 1955 JD-S07
    |              |--A. forsteri R14
    |              |--A. franckei JD-S07
    |              `--A. melon JD-S07
    `--Gradungulidae JD-S07
         |--Kayia Gray 1987 JD-S07
         |--Gradungula Forster 1955 PVD10
         |    `--*G. sorenseni Forster 1955 PVD10
         |--Tarlina Gray 1987 JD-S07
         |    `--T. woodwardi [=Gradungula woodwardi] FF99
         |--Spelungula Forster in Forster et al. 1987 PVD10
         |    `--*S. cavernicola Forster in Forster et al. 1987 PVD10
         |--Pianoa Forster in Forster et al. 1987 PVD10
         |    `--*P. isolata Forster in Forster et al. 1987 PVD10
         |--Progradungula Forster & Gray 1979 JD-S07
         |    `--P. carraiensis FF99
         `--Macrogradungula Gray 1987 JD-S07
              `--M. moonya MF01

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

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

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

[MF01] Monteith, G. B., & L. H. Field. 2001. Australian king crickets: distribution, habitats and biology (Orthoptera: Anostostomatidae). In: Field, L. H. (ed.) The Biology of Wetas, King Crickets and Their Allies pp. 79–94. CABI Publishing: Wallingford (UK).

[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.

Last updated: 26 January 2022.