Caponiidae

Taxobox
name = Caponiid spiders


image_width = 250px
image_caption = female caponiid
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Arachnida
ordo = Araneae
subordo = Araneomorphae
superfamilia = Caponioidea
familia = Caponiidae
familia_authority = Simon, 1890
diversity_link = List of Caponiidae species
diversity = 11 genera, 70 species
range_

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range_map_width = 250px
subdivision_ranks = Genera
subdivision = see textSpiders of the ecribellate haplogyne family Caponiidae are unusual in that most species have only two eyes, which is unheard of in other spiders. Other species have four, six or eight eyes. Even in a single species, sometimes the number of eyes changes from spiderling to adult.

Description

These spiders of about 2 to 5mm are rarely noticed, but generally look like somewhat faded woodlouse hunter spiders in the genus "Dysdera". The carapace (cephalothorax or prosoma) is orange and the abdomen (opisthosoma) light gray. The two-eyed species have their two eyes in the anterior middle of the carapace.

Eye numbers

* Eight eyes: "Calponia", "Caponia"
* Six eyes: "Caponina" (but may also have two, three, four or five eyes)
* Four eyes: "Nopsides", "Notnops"
* Two eyes: "Nops", "Orthonops", "Diplogena", "Taintnops", "Tisentnops"

Habits

Their habits are for the most part unknown. At least some species are known to hunt other spiders.

Relationships

The fact that they are ecribellate and haplogyne indicates that they are probably relatively primitive. "Calponia harrisonfordi" from California seems to be the most primitive member of the family. Their phylogenetic relationships have long been enigmatic, but in the early 1990s it was determined that they are probably a sister group of the Tetrablemmidae plus the four families inside the Dysderoidea superfamily.

The subfamily Nopinae consists at least of the genera "Nops", "Nopsides", "Orthonops" and "Tarsonops". The remaining genera are unlikely to form a monophyletic group.

Distribution

The family can be found in Africa and America from Argentina to the USA.

Names

"Calponia" is a contraction of "Californian Caponia", because the single species "Calponia harrisonfordi" has, like the African genus "Caponia" eight eyes. The species name is in honor of Harrison Ford, recognizing his efforts on behalf of the American Museum.

The Chilean caponiid fauna differs from that of the rest of the Neotropics in lacking members of the Nopinae (named after the genus "Nops"). Three genera newly described by Norman I. Platnick in 1994 were thus named "Notnops", "Taintnops" and "Tisentnops", emphasizing this fact. The only "Taintnops" species, "T. goloboffi", is named in honor of one of the collectors, P.A. Goloboff.

Genera

* "Calponia" Platnick, 1993 (USA)
* "Caponia" Simon, 1887 (Africa)
* "Caponina" Simon, 1891 (Central and South America)
* "Diploglena" Purcell, 1904 (South Africa)
* "Nops" Macleay, 1839 (Caribic, Central and South America)
* "Nopsides" Chamberlin, 1924 (Mexico)
* "Notnops" Platnick, 1994 (Chile)
* "Orthonops" Chamberlin, 1924 (USA, Mexico)
* "Taintnops" Platnick, 1994 (Chile)
* "Tarsonops" Chamberlin, 1924 (Mexico)
* "Tisentnops" Platnick, 1994 (Chile)

ee also

* List of Caponiidae species
* Spider families

References

* Platnick, N.I. (1993) A New Genus of the Spider Family Caponiidae (Araneae, Haplogynae) from California. "American Museum Novitates" 3063. [http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/dspace/bitstream/2246/5024/1/N3063.pdf PDF] ("Calponia")
* Platnick, N.I. (1994). A Revision of the Spider Genus "Caponina" (Araneae, Caponiidae). "American Museum Novitates" 3100.
* Platnick, N.I. (1994). A Review of the Chilean Spiders of the Family Caponiidae (Araneae, Haplogynae). "American Museum Novitates" 3113. [http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/dspace/bitstream/2246/4946/1/N3113.pdf PDF]
* Platnick, N.I. (1995). A revision of the spider genus "Orthonops" (Araneae, Caponiidae). American Museum novitates 3150. [http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/dspace/bitstream/2246/3674/1/N3150.pdf PDF] (five new species)

External links

* [http://www.americanarachnology.org/HiResGallery/other_caponiid.html Picture of unidentified caponiid]