Mygalomorphae

Male Calommata simoni, from Fourie et al. (2011). Scale bar = 5 mm.

Belongs within: Araneida.
Contains: Avicularoidea.

The Mygalomorphae are one of the main clades of spiders, characterised by chelicerae with fangs closing down the longitudinal axis of the body. Members of the families Atypidae and Antrodiaetidae have the cephalic part of the cephalothorax raised and the eyes on a common tubercle whereas in other mygalomorphs the eyes are sessile (Jocqué & Dippenaar-Schoeman 2007).

Synapomorphies (from Jocqué & Dippenaar-Schoeman 2007): Labium and endites with cuspules; sternum with sigilla; anterior median spinnerets absent; anterior lateral spinnerets reduced; posterior lateral spinnerets with three or four segments; number of male palpal sclerites reduced.

<==Mygalomorphae [Fornicephalae, Terretelariae]
    |  i. s.: Megarachne servinei Hünicken 1980 S02
    |         Eodiplurina cockerelli Petrunkevitch 1922 S02
    |         Pelecodon Doleschall 1859 D59
    |           `--*P. sundaicus Doleschall 1859 D59
    |         Hemirrhagus reddelli (Gertsch 1973) G11
    |         Fossilcalcaridae W19
    |--+--Avicularoidea JD-S07
    |  `--Mecicobothriidae JD-S07
    |       |--Megahexura Kaston 1972 JD-S07
    |       |--Hexura Simon 1884 JD-S07
    |       |--Hexurella Gertsch & Platnick 1979 JD-S07
    |       |--Cretohexura coylei Eskov & Zonshtein 1990 S93
    |       |--Cretomegahexura Eskov & Zonshtein 1990 S93
    |       `--Mecicobothrium Holmberg 1882 JD-S07
    |            `--M. thorelli JD-S07
    `--Atypoidea [Atypoidina] JD-S07
         |--Antrodiaetidae JD-S07
         |    |--Aliatypus Smith 1908 JD-S07
         |    |--Atypoides P.-Cambridge 1883 JD-S07
         |    |--Cretacattyma raveni Eskov & Zonshtein 1990 S93
         |    `--Antrodiaetus Ausserer 1871 JD-S07
         |         |--A. pacificus JD-S07
         |         `--A. robustus R14
         `--Atypidae JD-S07
              |--Sphodros Walckenaer 1835 JD-S07
              |--Ambiortiphagus ponomarenkoi Eskov & Zonshtein 1990 S93
              |--Calommata Lucas 1837 JD-S07
              |    `--C. simoni JD-S07
              `--Atypus Latreille 1804 JD-S07
                   |--*A. sultzeri Latreille 1804 C01
                   |--A. affinis Eichwald 1830 S02
                   |--A. bicolor A99
                   `--A. subterraneus [=Aranea subterranea] C01

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[A99] Ax, P. 1999. Das System der Metazoa II. Ein Lehrbuch der phylogenetischen Systematik. Gustav Fisher Verlag: Stuttgart (transl. 2000. Multicellular Animals: The phylogenetic system of the Metazoa vol. 2. Springer).

[C01] Cambridge, F. O. P. 1901. A revision of the genera of the Araneae or spiders with reference to their type species. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, series 7, 7: 51–65.

[D59] Doleschall, C. L. 1859. Tweede Bijdrage tot de kennis der Arachniden van den Indischen Archipel. Verhandelingen der Natuurkundige Vereeniging in Nederlandsch Indie [Acta Societatis Scientiarum Indo-Neêrlandicae] 5 (5): 1–60, pls 1–18.

[G11] Giribet, G. 2011. Shearogovea, a new genus of Cyphophthalmi (Arachnida, Opiliones) of uncertain position of Oaxacan caves, Mexico. Breviora 528: 1–7.

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

[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.

[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. First British Mesozoic spider, from Cretaceous amber of the Isle of Wight, southern England. Palaeontology 45 (5): 973–983.

[W19] Wunderlich, J. 2019. What is a spider? Cretaceous fossils modify strongly phylogenetics as well as diagnoses of families, superfamilies and even suborders of spiders (Araneida) and other arthropods. Beiträge zur Araneologie 12: 1–32.

Last updated: 16 October 2019.