The Araneomorphae (also called the Labidognatha) are an
infraorder of
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 d ...
s. They are distinguishable by
chelicerae (fangs) that point diagonally forward and cross in a pinching action, in contrast to the
Mygalomorphae (tarantulas and their close kin), where they point straight down. Araneomorphs comprise the vast majority of living spiders.
Distinguishing characteristics
Most spider species are Araneomorphae, which have
fangs that face towards each other, increasing the orientations they can employ during prey capture. They have fewer
book lung
A book lung is a type of respiration organ used for atmospheric gas exchange that is present in many arachnids, such as scorpions and spiders. Each of these organs is located inside an open ventral abdominal, air-filled cavity (atrium) and conn ...
s (when present), and the females typically live one year.
The Mygalomorphae have
fangs that face towards the ground, and which are parallel to the long axis of the spider's body, thus they have only one orientation they can employ during prey capture. They have four pairs of book lungs, and the females often live many years.
Image:Atrax robustus.jpg, This '' Atrax robustus'' shows the orientation of Myglamorphae fangs.
Image:Cheiracanthium punctorium frei 1 17 Forst Jungfernhdeide Jg 46 070920.jpg, This '' Cheiracanthium punctorium'' shows the orientation of Araneomorphae fangs.
Spiders included
Almost all of the familiar spiders are included in the Araneomorphae group, the major exception being the
Tarantulas. There are a few other Mygalomorphae species that live around homes or gardens, but they typically are relatively small and not easily noticed.
The Araneomorphae, to the contrary, include the
weavers of spiral webs; the
cobweb spiders that live in the corners of rooms, and between windows and screens; the
crab spiders that lurk on the surfaces of flowers in gardens; the
jumping spiders that are visible hunting on surfaces; the
wolf spiders that carpet hunting sites in sunny spots; and the large
huntsman spider
Huntsman spiders, members of the family Sparassidae (formerly Heteropodidae), are known by this name because of their speed and mode of hunting. They are also called giant crab spiders because of their size and appearance. Larger species sometim ...
s.
Systematics
In older schemes, the Araneomorphae were divided into two lineages, the ''Hypochilae'' (containing only the family
Hypochilidae), and the ''Neocribellatae''. The Neocribellatae were in turn divided into the Austrochiloidea, and the two
series Haplogynae and Entelogynae, each containing several
superfamilies.
Molecular phylogenetic
Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...
studies have shown that the Haplogyne in particular are not a
monophyletic
In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic ...
group. A 2020 study suggested the relationships among the major groups were as shown in the following cladogram.
The blue bar to the right shows the former Haplogynae in the sense of Coddington (2005).
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Table of families
Notes
References
Citations
External links
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