Micropholcommatidae

Rayforstia vulgaris, from Rix & Harvey (2010).

Belongs within: Palpimanoidea.

The Micropholcommatidae are a group of minute spiders with a strongly raised carapace found in South America and Australasia (Jocqué & Dippenaar-Schoeman 2007). Their habits are poorly known but they are found in forests in association with mosses and leaf litter.

Characters (from Jocqué & Dippenaar-Schoeman 2007): Very small; three tarsal claws; ecribellate; entelegyne; six or eight eyes; cheliceral gland mound elevated; anterior booklungs reduced to either a few leaves or true tracheae.

<==Micropholcommatidae
    |  i. s.: Raveniella T13
    |--Taphiassa Simon 1880 PVD10 [incl. Parapua Forster 1959 PVD10, JD-S07; Taphiassinae PVD10]
    |    `--T. punctata (Forster 1959) [=Parapua punctata] PVD10
    |--Textricellinae [Textricellidae] PD07
    |    |--Tricella Forster & Platnick 1989 non Long 1912 (ICBN) JD-S07
    |    |--Cenotextricella Penney, Dierick et al. 2007 PD07
    |    |    `--*C. simoni Penney, Dierick et al. 2007 PD07
    |    `--Textricella Hickman 1945 JD-S07
    |         |--T. complexa PD07
    |         |--T. fulva S03
    |         |--T. luteola R14
    |         |--T. parva S03
    |         |--T. plebeia F64
    |         |--T. salmoni FF99
    |         |--T. vulgaris Forster 1959 S03
    |         `--T. wisei Forster 1964 [=T. campbellensis Forster 1964 (n. n.)] F64
    `--Micropholcommatinae PVD10
         |--Tricellina Forster & Platnick 1989 S03
         |--Olgania Hickman 1979 JD-S07
         |--Pua Forster 1959 PVD10
         |    `--*P. novaezealandiae Forster 1959 PVD10
         |--Teutoniella Brignoli 1981 PVD10
         |    `--T. cekalovici JD-S07
         |--Algidiella Rix & Harvey 2010 PVD10
         |    `--*A. aucklandica (Forster 1955) [=Textricella aucklandica] PVD10
         |--Tinytrella Rix & Harvey 2010 PVD10
         |    `--*T. pusilla (Forster 1959) [=Textricella pusilla] PVD10
         |--Taliniella Rix & Harvey 2010 PVD10
         |    |--*T. nigra (Forster 1959) [=Textricella nigra] PVD10
         |    `--T. vinki Rix & Harvey 2010 PVD10
         |--Micropholcomma Crosby & Bishop 1927 [incl. Microlinypheus Butler 1932, Plectochetos Butler 1932] R08
         |    |--*M. caeligenum Crosby & Bishop 1927 R08
         |    |--M. bryophilum (Butler 1932) [=*Microlinypheus bryophilus] R08
         |    |--M. linnaei Rix 2008 R08
         |    |--M. longissimum (Butler 1932) [=*Plectochetos longissimus] R08
         |    |--M. mirum Hickman 1944 R08
         |    |--M. parmatum Hickman 1944 R08
         |    `--M. turbans Hickman 1981 R08
         |--Eterosonycha Butler 1932 JD-S07
         `--Rayforstia Rix & Harvey 2010 PVD10
              |--*R. vulgaris (Forster 1959) PVD10
              |--R. antipoda (Forster 1959) PVD10
              |--R. insula (forster 1959) PVD10
              |--R. mcfarlanei (Forster 1959) PVD10
              |--R. plebeia (Forster 1959) PVD10
              |--R. propinqua (Forster 1959) PVD10
              |--R. salmoni (Forster 1959) PVD10
              |--R. scuta (Forster 1959) PVD10
              |--R. signata (Forster 1959) PVD10
              `--R. wisei (Forster 1964) PVD10

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[F64] Forster, R. R. 1964. The Araneae and Opiliones of the subantarctic islands of New Zealand. Pacific Insects Monograph 7: 58–115.

[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).

[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).

[PD07] Penney, D., M. Dierick, V. Cnudde, B. Masschaele, J. Vlassenbroeck, L. van Hoorebeke & P. Jacobs. 2007. First fossil Micropholcommatidae (Araneae), imaged in Eocene Paris amber using X-ray computed tomography. Zootaxa 1623: 47–53.

[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.

[R08] Rix, M. G. 2008. A new species of Micropholcomma (Araneae: Araneoidea: Micropholcommatidae) from Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum 24 (4): 343–348.

[S03] Schütt, K. 2003. Phylogeny of Symphytognathidae s.l. (Araneae, Araneoidea). Zoologica Scripta 32 (2): 129–151.

[T13] Taylor, C. K. 2013. Annotated bibliography for Barrow Island terrestrial invertebrates. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 83: 135–144.

Last updated: 24 January 2022.