Cithaeronidae is a small family of

araneomorph The Araneomorphae (also called the Labidognatha) 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 (tarantulas and their ...

spider Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...

s first described by

Simon Simon may refer to: People * Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon * Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon * Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genus ...

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 in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and parts of

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago ...

. 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 t ...

, Piauí,

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. 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 (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...

of Australia. 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 In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

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. The range is the physical boundary between Boeotia in the north and Attica in the south. It is mai ...

'' 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) — 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 ( type) — 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