Macrothele

Macrothele
Threatening female M. gigas
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Arthropoda
Subphylum:Chelicerata
Class:Arachnida
Order:Araneae
Infraorder:Mygalomorphae
Family:Macrothelidae
Simon, 1892[1]
Genus:Macrothele
Ausserer, 1871[2]
Type species
Mygale calpeiana
Species

See text.

Diversity
26 species

Macrothele is a genus of mygalomorph spiders. It is the only species in the family Macrothelidae.[1] Most species occur in Asia from India to Japan and Java, with four found in Africa and two in Europe.

Description

Nest of M. gigas

Spiders of this genus are fairly large, with Chinese species ranging from 1–3 cm (0.4–1.2 in) in female body length. Males are smaller, sometimes only half that length.[3] Macrothelids can be distinguished from other mygalomorph spiders by having larger posterior sigillae on the sternum, and the arrangement of the rows of teeth on the margin of the chelicerae: larger front-facing margin and smaller rear-facing.[4] These spiders build tube-webs or funnel-webs under rocks or logs, or in crevices in the ground.[3]

Taxonomy

The genus Macrothele was erected by Anton Ausserer in 1871, with the type species being Macrothele calpeiana, formerly Mygale calpeiana.[2] The genus name is derived from Ancient Greek makro ("big") and thele, which refers to the spinnerets. Ausserer placed the genus in the then very broadly defined family Theraphosidae. It was later placed in the Dipluridae and the Hexathelidae before being transferred to the Macrothelidae in 2018.[2] A molecular phylogenetic study in 2018 suggested that Macrothele was a distinct, early diverging lineage within the Mygalomorphae. Accordingly Simon's subfamily Macrothelinae was elevated to the family Macrothelidae. The following cladogram shows the possible relationship of Macrothele to related taxa.[4]

 

 

Dipluridae

 
 

 

Hexathelidae

 
 

 

Porrhothelidae

 
 

 

Macrothele (Macrothelidae)

 
 

 

 

Calisoga (Nemesiidae)

 
 

Hebestatis (Halonoproctidae)

 
 
 

 

Atracidae

 
 

Actinopodidae

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Species

Female M. yaginumai
  • Macrothele abrupta Benoit, 1965 — Congo
  • Macrothele amamiensis Shimojana & Haupt, 1998 — Ryukyu Islands
  • Macrothele bannaensis Xu & Yin, 2001 — China
  • Macrothele calpeiana (Walckenaer, 1805) — Spain, North Africa
  • Macrothele camerunensis Simon, 1903 — Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea
  • Macrothele cretica Kulczynski, 1903 — Crete
  • Macrothele decemnotata Simon, 1909 — Vietnam
  • Macrothele gigas Shimojana & Haupt, 1998 — Ryukyu Islands
  • Macrothele guizhouensis Hu & Li, 1986 — China
  • Macrothele holsti Pocock, 1901 — Taiwan
  • Macrothele hunanica Zhu & Song, 2000 — China
  • Macrothele incisa Benoit, 1965 — Congo
  • Macrothele maculata (Thorell, 1890) — Myanmar, Sumatra, Java
  • Macrothele monocirculata Xu & Yin, 2000 — China
  • Macrothele palpator Pocock, 1901 — China, Hong Kong
  • Macrothele proserpina Simon, 1909 — Vietnam
  • Macrothele raveni Zhu, Li & Song, 2000 — China
  • Macrothele segmentata Simon, 1892 — Malaysia
  • Macrothele simplicata (Saito, 1933) — Taiwan
  • Macrothele taiwanensis Shimojana & Haupt, 1998 — Taiwan
  • Macrothele triangularis Benoit, 1965 — Congo
  • Macrothele variabiis Pavesi, 1898 — Java
  • Macrothele vidua Simon, 1906 — India
  • Macrothele yaginumai Shimojana & Haupt, 1998 — Ryukyu Islands
  • Macrothele yani Xu, Yin & Griswold, 2002 — China
  • Macrothele yunnanica Zhu & Song, 2000 — China

Distribution

Macrothele ranges from the western Mediterranean and West Africa to Southeast Asia, mainland China and Taiwan.[2] However, there is some doubt if the western and eastern species should be grouped in the same genus.[5]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Family Macrothelidae Simon,1892", World Spider Catalog, Natural History Museum Bern, retrieved 2018-05-15
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Gen. Macrothele Ausserer, 1871", World Spider Catalog, Natural History Museum Bern, retrieved 2018-05-20
  3. 1 2 Zhu, M.S. & Song, D.X. (2000), "Review of the Chinese funnel-web spiders of the genus Macrothele, with descriptions of two new species (Araneae:Hexathelidae)" (PDF), The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, 48 (1): 59–64, archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-02-05, retrieved 2018-05-20 (with key to Chinese species)
  4. 1 2 Hedin, M.; Derkarabetian, S.; Ramírez, M.J.; Vink, C. & Bond, J.E. (2018), "Phylogenomic reclassification of the world's most venomous spiders (Mygalomorphae, Atracinae), with implications for venom evolution", Scientific Reports, 8 (1636): 1–7, doi:10.1038/s41598-018-19946-2
  5. ↑ Murphy, Frances & Murphy, John (2000), An Introduction to the Spiders of South East Asia, Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Nature Society
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