''Micromatta'' is a

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of Central American

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 ...

spiders in the family

Tetrablemmidae Tetrablemmidae, sometimes called armored spiders, is a family of tropical araneomorph spiders first described by Octavius Pickard-Cambridge in 1873. It contains 126 described species in 29 genera from southeast Asia, with a few that occur in Afri ...

found in

Belize Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a maritime boundary with Honduras to the southeast. P ...

. It contains the single species, ''Micromatta atoma'', first described by W. A. Shear in 1978.

Pekka T. Lehtinen Pekka T. Lehtinen (born 1934) is a Finnish arachnology, arachnologist and taxonomy (biology), taxonomist. He is known for his works in systematics and for the many expeditions in which he has participated. Biography Lehtinen was born on 5 April ...

transferred it to ''Micromatta'' in 1981 because the shapes of the male embolus and conductor are quite different than those of '' Matta'' and '' Caraimatta''. Additionally, the

plesiomorphic In phylogenetics, a plesiomorphy ("near form") and symplesiomorphy are synonyms for an ancestral character shared by all members of a clade, which does not distinguish the clade from other clades. Plesiomorphy, symplesiomorphy, apomorphy, an ...

structure of pedipalp segments prove that the three genera aren't a

paraphyletic group Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In con ...

References

Monotypic Araneomorphae genera Spiders of Central America Taxa named by Pekka T. Lehtinen Tetrablemmidae {{Tetrablemmidae-stub

See also

References