Nesticidae

Nesticus cellulanus, copyright Gernot Kunz.

Belongs within: Araneoidea.

The Nesticidae, cave cobweb spiders, are a group of small spiders that primarily build their highly elastic cobwebs in dark locations. They are distinguished from the closely related Theridiidae by morphology of the male palp, in which the paracymbium is large and proximal, and the cymbium is rebordered (Jocqué & Dippenaar-Schoeman 2007).

Characters (from Jocqué & Dippenaar-Schoeman 2007): Very small to small; eight eyes present in two rows; cheliceral fang furrow with two or three strong teeth and irregular group of numerous small denticles; labium rebordered; legs with three tarsal claws, tarsi IV with row of serrated bristles; ecribellate; entelegyne.

<==Nesticidae
    |--Aituaria Esyunin & Efimik 1998 JD-S07
    |--Canarionesticus Wunderlich 1992 JD-S07
    |--Carpathonesticus Lehtinen & Saaristo 1980 JD-S07
    |--Cyclocarcina Komatsu 1942 JD-S07
    |--Gaucelmus Keyserling 1884 JD-S07
    |--Typhlonesticus Kulczynski 1914 JD-S07
    |--Baltonesticus flexuosus Wunderlich 1986 S93
    |--Heteronesticus magnoparacymbialis Wunderlich 1986 S93
    |--Howaia Lehtinen & Saaristo 1980 MG03
    |    `--*H. mogera (Yaginuma 1972) [=Nesticella mogera, Nesticus mogera] MG03
    |--Eidmannella Roewer 1935 JD-S07
    |    `--E. rostrata JD-S07
    |--Nesticella Lehtinen & Saaristo 1980 MG03
    |    |--*N. nepalensis (Hubert 1973) MG03
    |    |--N. robinsoni Lehtinen & Saaristo 1980 MG03
    |    `--N. taurama Lehtinen & Saaristo 1980 MG03
    |--Eopopino S93
    |    |--E. inopinatus Wunderlich 1986 S93
    |    |--E. longipes Petrunkevitch 1942 S93
    |    `--E. rarus Wunderlich 1986 S93
    `--Nesticus Thorell 1869 [Nesticeae] JD-S07
         |--N. akiensis T07
         |--N. akiyoshiensis T07
         |--N. cellulanus (Clerck 1757) GE02
         |--N. henderickxi JD-S07
         |--N. nasicus TH08
         |--N. noroensis T07
         `--N. silvestrii GE02

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[GE02] Giribet, G., G. D. Edgecombe, W. C. Wheeler & C. Babbitt. 2002. Phylogeny and systematic position of Opiliones: a combined analysis of chelicerate relationships using morphological and molecular data. Cladistics 18: 5–70.

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

[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.

[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.

[TH08] Thomas, S. M., & M. Hedin. 2008. Multigenic phylogeographic divergence in the paleoendemic southern Appalachian opilionid Fumontana deprehendor Shear (Opiliones, Laniatores, Triaenonychidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 46 (2): 645–658.

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

Last updated: 22 September 2019.