- Crevice weaver
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Crevice weaver spiders 
Filistatid web Scientific classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Arachnida Order: Araneae Suborder: Araneomorphae Superfamily: Filistatoidea Family: Filistatidae
Ausserer, 1867Genera see text
Diversity 17 genera, > 100 species 
The crevice weaver spiders (super-family Filistatoidea, family Filistatidae) contain primitive cribellate. They are haplogyne weavers of funnel or tube webs. The family contains 17 genera and more than hundred described species worldwide. One of the most abundant members of this family in the Americas is the Southern house spider (Kukulcania hibernalis). Named after the fierce Meso-American god Kukulkan, the females are large (up to nearly 20 mm) dark-colored spiders and males are light brown, smaller (about 10 mm.), but more long-legged and with palpi that are held together in front of their carapaces like the horn of a unicorn. The males also have a darker streak on the center of the dorsal carapace that causes them to be often mistaken for brown recluse spiders. The tiny members of the genus Filistatinella are like miniature versions of Kukulcania. The nominate genus Filistata is Afro-Eurasian in distribution. In many older books the species from the Americas now placed in the genus Kukulcania are placed in Filistata.
Genera
The categorization into subfamilies follows Joel Hallan's Biology Catalog.
- Filistatinae Ausserer, 1867
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- Filistata Latreille, 1810 (Mediterranean, Asia, Mexico)
- Kukulcania Lehtinen, 1967 (America)
- Sahastata Benoit, 1968 (Mediterranean to India)
- Zaitunia Lehtinen, 1967 (Iran, Israel, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan)
- Prithinae Gray, 1995
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- Afrofilistata Benoit, 1968 (Africa)
- Andoharano Lehtinen, 1967 (Madagascar)
- Filistatinella Gertsch & Ivie, 1936 (USA)
- Filistatoides O. P-Cambridge, 1899 (Guatemala, Cuba, Chile)
- Lihuelistata Ramírez & Grismado, 1997 (Argentina)
- Misionella Ramírez & Grismado, 1997 (Brazil, Argentina)
- Pikelinia Mello-Leitão, 1946 (Argentina, Colombia, Galapagos)
- Pritha Lehtinen, 1967 (Asia, Mediterranean, New Guinea)
- Wandella Gray, 1994 (Australia)
- Yardiella Gray, 1994 (Australia)
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- Microfilistata Zonstein, 1990 (Tajikistan)
- Tricalamus Wang, 1987 (China)
See also
- List of Filistatidae species
- Spider families
External links
Categories:- Filistatidae
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