''Chileotaxus'' 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 Chilean

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

Physoglenidae Physoglenidae is a family of araneomorph spiders first described by Alexander Petrunkevitch in 1928 as a subfamily of Pholcidae. It was later moved to Synotaxidae until a study in 2016 showed that they formed a distinct clade. Genera , the Worl ...

, containing the single species ''Chileotaxus sans''. It was first 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 1990, and is found in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

. Originally placed with the

Synotaxidae Synotaxidae is a family of spiders with thirty-four described species in five genera. It was first described by Eugène Simon in 1895. Genera , the World Spider Catalog The World Spider Catalog (WSC) is an online searchable database concerned ...

, it was moved to the Physoglenidae in 1973. The generic name is a contraction of "Chilean Synotaxus", and the specific name is an arbitrary combination of letters.

Description

''Chileotaxus sans'' is a green spider with long, spineless legs and a triangular abdomen. Adults range from 1.9 to 2.3 mm in length. The carapace is longer than it is wide, and narrows towards the anterior end. The eyes cover almost the entire width of the head region. The MOQ forms a trapezium which is wider towards the rear, and with the AME closer together than the PME. The AME are darker and smaller than the other eyes, and the clypeal height is approximately four times the diameter of the AME.

Habitat and description

The species is found in wet forests in Chile, under the leaves of trees and shrubs. They construct a dome shaped sheet-web, with the apex underneath a leaf.

References

Monotypic Araneomorphae genera Physoglenidae Spiders of South America Taxa named by Raymond Robert Forster Endemic fauna of Chile {{Araneomorphae-stub

Description

Habitat and description

See also

References