Caponiidae is a family of ecribellate

haplogyne The Haplogynae or haplogynes are one of the two main groups into which araneomorph spiders have traditionally been divided, the other being the Entelegynae. Morphological phylogenetic studies suggested that the Haplogynae formed a clade; more rece ...

spiders that are unusual in a number of ways. They differ from other spiders in lacking

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 and having the posterior median

spinneret A spinneret is a silk-spinning organ of a spider or the larva of an insect. Some adult insects also have spinnerets, such as those borne on the forelegs of Embioptera. Spinnerets are usually on the underside of a spider's opisthosoma, and ar ...

s anteriorly displaced to form a transverse row with the anterior lateral spinnerets. Most species have only two eyes, which is also unusual among spiders. A few species of Caponiidae variously have four, six or eight eyes. In some species the number of eyes will increase when the spiderling changes its skin as it grows towards adulthood.

Description

These spiders of about are rarely noticed, but generally look like somewhat faded woodlouse hunter spiders in the genus '' Dysdera''. The

carapace A carapace is a dorsal (upper) section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods, such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates, such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tortoises, the unde ...

(cephalothorax or prosoma) is orange and the

abdomen The abdomen (colloquially called the gut, belly, tummy, midriff, tucky, or stomach) is the front part of the torso between the thorax (chest) and pelvis in humans and in other vertebrates. The area occupied by the abdomen is called the abdominal ...

(opisthosoma) light gray. The two-eyed species have their two eyes in the anterior middle of the carapace.

Eye numbers

Caponiidae are unusual in the degree to which the eye number varies. In this they surpass even the family Cybaeidae in which some species have two eyes, some six, and some eight. In some species of the Caponiidae paired eyes meet in the midline, giving the spider in effect, an odd number of eyes. The following genera have eyes as follows: * Eight eyes: '' Calponia'', '' Caponia'' (but latter may also have two, three, four or 'five' eyes) * Six eyes: '' Iraponia'' * Four eyes: '' Nopsides'', '' Notnops'' * Two eyes: '' Cubanops'', '' Diploglena'', '' Laoponia'', '' Medionops'', '' Nops'', '' Nopsma'', '' Nyetnops'', '' Orthonops'', '' Taintnops'', '' Tarsonops'', '' Tisentnops''.

Habits

Their habits are for the most part unknown. At least some species are known to hunt other spiders.

Relationships

The fact that they are ecribellate and

suggests that they might be relatively primitive. '' Calponia harrisonfordi'' from

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

seems to be the most primitive member of the family. Their phylogenetic relationships have long been enigmatic, but in the early 1990s it was determined that they are probably a sister group of the Tetrablemmidae plus the four families inside the superfamily Dysderoidea. The subfamily Nopinae consists at least of the genera ''Nops'', ''Nopsides'', ''Orthonops'' and ''Tarsonops''. The remaining genera are unlikely to form a

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

group.

Distribution

The family is 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 ...

and the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

from

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

to the United States.

Names

''Calponia'' is a contraction of ''Californian Caponia'', because the single species ''Calponia harrisonfordi'' has, like the African genus ''Caponia'' eight eyes. The species name is in honor of

Harrison Ford Harrison Ford (born July 13, 1942) is an American actor. Regarded as a cinematic cultural icon, he has starred in Harrison Ford filmography, many notable films over seven decades, and is one of List of highest-grossing actors, the highest-gr ...

, recognizing his efforts on behalf of the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interconn ...

. The Chilean caponiid fauna differs from that of the rest of the Neotropics in lacking members of the Nopinae (named after the genus ''Nops''). Three genera newly described by

Norman I. Platnick Norman Ira Platnick (December 30, 1951 – April 8, 2020) was an American biological systematist and Arachnology, arachnologist. At the time of his death, he was a professor emeritus of the American Museum of Natural History#Richard Gilder Gradua ...

in 1994 were thus named ''Notnops'', ''Taintnops'' and ''Tisentnops'', emphasizing this fact. The only ''Taintnops'' species, ''T. goloboffi'', is named in honor of one of the collectors, P.A. Goloboff.

Genera

, 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 ...

accepts the following genera: *'' Aamunops'' Galán-Sánchez & Álvarez-Padilla, 2022 — Mexico *'' Calponia'' Platnick, 1993 — United States *'' Caponia'' Simon, 1887 — Africa *'' Caponina'' Simon, 1892 — South America, Caribbean, Central America *'' Carajas'' Brescovit & Sánchez-Ruiz, 2016 — Brazil *'' Cubanops'' Sánchez-Ruiz, Platnick & Dupérré, 2010 — Cuba *'' Diploglena'' Purcell, 1904 — South Africa, Namibia, Botswana *'' Iraponia'' Kranz-Baltensperger, Platnick & Dupérré, 2009 *'' Laoponia'' Platnick & Jäger, 2008 — Laos, Vietnam *'' Medionops'' Sánchez-Ruiz & Brescovit, 2017 — South America, Panama, Trinidad *'' Nasutonops'' Brescovit & Sánchez-Ruiz, 2016 — Brazil *'' Nops'' MacLeay, 1839 — South America, Mexico, Central America, Caribbean *'' Nopsides'' Chamberlin, 1924 — Mexico *'' Nopsma'' Sánchez-Ruiz, Brescovit, Bonaldo 2020 — South America, Mexico, Central America *'' Notnops'' Platnick, 1994 — Chile *'' Nyetnops'' Platnick & Lise, 2007 — Brazil, Ecuador *'' Orthonops'' Chamberlin, 1924 — United States, Mexico *'' Roddenberryus'' Sánchez-Ruiz & Bonaldo, 2023 — Costa Rica, Mexico, Cuba, Guatemala *'' Taintnops'' Platnick, 1994 — Chile *'' Tarsonops'' Chamberlin, 1924 — Cuba, Central America, Mexico *'' Tisentnops'' Platnick, 1994 — Chile, Brazil

References

* Kranz-Baltensperger, Y., N. Platnick & N. Dupérré (2009). A new genus of the spider family Caponiidae (Araneae, Haplogynae) from Iran. ''American Museum Novitates'', 3656 :1-12

* Platnick, N.I. (1993) A New Genus of the Spider Family Caponiidae (Araneae, Haplogynae) from California. ''American Museum Novitates'' 3063
PDF
(''Calponia'') * Platnick, N.I. (1994). A Revision of the Spider Genus ''Caponina'' (Araneae, Caponiidae). ''American Museum Novitates'' 3100. * Platnick, N.I. (1994). A Review of the Chilean Spiders of the Family Caponiidae (Araneae, Haplogynae). ''American Museum Novitates'' 3113
PDF
* Platnick, N.I. (1995). A revision of the spider genus ''Orthonops'' (Araneae, Caponiidae). ''American Museum Novitates'' 3150
PDF
(five new species) * Platnick, N.I. & P. Jager (2008). On the first Asian spiders of the family Caponiidae (Araneae, Haplogynae), with notes on the African genus Diploglena. ''American Museum Novitates'', 3634: 1–12

* Platnick, N.I. & A. Lise (2007). On Nyetnops, a new genus of the spider subfamily Nopinae (Araneae, Caponiidae) from Brazil. ''American Museum Novitates'', 3595:1-9

* Sánchez-Ruiz, A., N.I. Platnick, and N. Dupérré (2010). A new genus of the spider family Caponiidae (Araneae, Haplogynae) from the West Indies. ''American Museum Novitates'' 3705: 1–44

External links

Picture of unidentified caponiid
{{Authority control Caponiidae, Araneomorphae families