Cithaeronidae is a small family of

araneomorph The Araneomorphae (also called the Labidognatha or "true spiders") are an infraorder of spiders. They are distinguishable by chelicerae (fangs) that point diagonally forward and cross in a pinching action, in contrast to the Mygalomorphae (taran ...

spider Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and ran ...

s first described by Simon in 1893 Female ''Cithaeron'' are about long, males about . They are pale yellowish, fast-moving spiders that actively hunt at night and rest during the day, building silken retreats below rocks. They prefer very hot, dry stony places.

Distribution

While ''Inthaeron'' occurs only in India, members of the genus ''Cithaeron'' are found in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and parts of

Eurasia Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...

. Three adult females of ''C. praedonius'' were found in

Teresina Teresina is the capital and most populous municipality in the Brazilian state of Piauí. Being located in north-central Piauí 366 km from the coast, it is the only capital in the Brazilian Northeast that is not located on the shores of th ...

Piauí Piauí ( ) is one of the states of Brazil, located in the country's Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region. The state has 1.6% of the Brazilian population and produces 0.7% of the Brazilian GDP. Piauí has the shortest coastline of any coas ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. As they were found in and near human housings, they presumably were accidentally introduced. This is probably also the case for finds in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. Another population of ''C. praedonius'' has been discovered in Florida U.S.A., with reports of a stable breeding population.(Pers. comm. Joseph Stiles)

Genera and Species

This section lists all described

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

accepted by the

World Spider Catalog The World Spider Catalog (WSC) is an online searchable database concerned with spider taxonomy. It aims to list all accepted families, genera and species, as well as provide access to the related taxonomic literature. The WSC began as a series of ...

: ''

Cithaeron Cithaeron or Kithairon (Κιθαιρών, -ῶνος) is a mountain and mountain range about sixteen kilometres (ten miles) long in Central Greece (geographic region), Central Greece. The range is the physical boundary between Boeotia region in t ...

'' O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1872 * '' C. contentum'' Jocqué & Russell-Smith, 2011 — South Africa * '' C. delimbatus'' Strand, 1906 — East Africa * '' C. dippenaarae'' Bosmans & Van Keer, 2015 — Morocco * '' C. indicus'' Platnick & Gajbe, 1994 — India * '' C. jocqueorum'' Platnick, 1991 — Ivory Coast * '' C. praedonius'' O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1872 (

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * ...

) — North Africa, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Middle East to India, Malaysia. Introduced to USA, Cuba, Brazil, Australia (Northern Territory) * '' C. reimoseri'' Platnick, 1991 — Eritrea, Brazil (probably introduced) '' Inthaeron'' Platnick, 1991 * '' I. longipes'' (Gravely, 1931) — India * '' I. rossi'' Platnick, 1991 (

) — India

References

* (2002): A revision of the Australasian ground spiders of the families Ammoxenidae, Cithaeronidae, Gallieniellidae, and Trochanteriidae (Araneae, Gnaphosoidea). ''Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History'' 271
PDF (26Mb)
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Abstract

External links

* (2011)
The first North American records of the synanthropic spider

Hi-Res Photographs of ''Cithaeron praedonius''
Araneomorphae families {{Cithaeronidae-stub