''Caponia'', also called eight-eyed orange lungless spiders, is an

Afrotropical The Afrotropical realm is one of the Earth's eight biogeographic realms. It includes Sub-Saharan Africa, the southern Arabian Peninsula, the island of Madagascar, and the islands of the western Indian Ocean. It was formerly known as the Ethiopi ...

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 ...

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

Caponiidae Caponiidae is a family of ecribellate haplogyne spiders that are unusual in a number of ways. They differ from other spiders in lacking book lungs and having the posterior median spinnerets anteriorly displaced to form a transverse row with th ...

, first described by

Eugène Simon Eugène Louis Simon (; 30 April 1848 – 17 November 1924) was a French naturalist who worked particularly on insects and spiders, but also on birds and plants. He is by far the most prolific spider Taxonomy (biology), taxonomist in history, ...

in 1887. As the common name implies, these spiders have a tightly arranged set of eight eyes, as opposed to the related two-eyed genus '' Diploglena'', and breathe using two pairs of tracheae rather than

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 co ...

s. They are agile, nocturnal hunters, that hide by day in a variety of silk-lined retreats.

Species

it contains ten species: *'' Caponia braunsi''

Purcell Henry Purcell (, rare: ; September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer of Baroque music, most remembered for his more than 100 songs; a tragic opera, ''Dido and Aeneas''; and his incidental music to a version of Shakespeare's ...

, 1904 – South Africa *'' Caponia capensis'' Purcell, 1904 – South Africa, Mozambique *'' Caponia chelifera'' Lessert, 1936 – Mozambique *'' Caponia forficifera'' Purcell, 1904 – South Africa *'' Caponia hastifera'' Purcell, 1904 – South Africa, Mozambique *'' Caponia karrooica'' Purcell, 1904 – South Africa *'' Caponia natalensis'' (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1874) (

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. * ...

) – Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa *'' Caponia secunda'' Pocock, 1900 – South Africa *'' Caponia simoni'' Purcell, 1904 – South Africa *'' Caponia spiralifera'' Purcell, 1904 – South Africa

References

Caponiidae genera Caponiidae Spiders of Africa Taxa named by Eugène Simon {{Caponiidae-stub