''Macrothele'' is a
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
mygalomorph spiders in the family
Macrothelidae, and was first described by
A. Ausserer in 1871.
Most of the species in the genus occur in Asia, from India to Japan, and
Java
Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...
, with five found in Africa, and two in Europe.
The name is derived from
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...
μακρός ("makro-"), meaning "big", and
θηλή ("thele"), referring to the
spinnerets.
Description
Spiders of this genus are fairly large, with females of some Chinese species ranging from in body length. Males are smaller, sometimes only half that length.
Macrothelids can be distinguished from other
mygalomorph spiders by their larger posterior
sigillae on the
sternum
The sternum (: sternums or sterna) or breastbone is a long flat bone located in the central part of the chest. It connects to the ribs via cartilage and forms the front of the rib cage, thus helping to protect the heart, lungs, and major bl ...
, and the arrangement of the rows of teeth on the margin of the
chelicerae: larger front-facing margin and smaller rear-facing.
These spiders build tube-webs or funnel-webs under rocks or logs, or in crevices in the ground.
Taxonomy
The genus ''Macrothele'' was erected by
Anton Ausserer in 1871, with the
type species
In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...
being ''
Macrothele calpeiana'', formerly ''Mygale calpeiana''.
Ausserer placed the genus in the then very broadly defined family
Theraphosidae. It was later placed in the
Dipluridae and the
Hexathelidae before being transferred to the Macrothelidae in 2018.
A
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 ...
study in 2018 suggested that ''Macrothele'' was a distinct, early diverging lineage within the Mygalomorphae. Accordingly, Simon's subfamily Macrothelinae was elevated to the family Macrothelidae. There is some doubt if the western and eastern species should be grouped in the same genus.
The following
cladogram
A cladogram (from Greek language, Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an Phylogenetic tree, evolutionary tree because it does not s ...
shows the possible relationship of ''Macrothele'' to related taxa:
Species
, it contains 39 species and one subspecies from Africa, Asia and Europe:
*''
Macrothele abrupta''
Benoit, 1965 – Congo
*''
Macrothele alyrata''
(Mirza, Sanap & Kunte, 2017) – India
*''
Macrothele amamiensis''
Shimojana & Haupt, 1998 – Japan (Ryukyu Is.)
*''
Macrothele arcuata''
Tang, Zhao & Yang, 2020 – China
*''
Macrothele bannaensis''
Xu & Yin, 2001 – China, Laos
*''
Macrothele calpeiana''
(Walckenaer, 1805) (
type) – Southern Europe, North Africa
*''
Macrothele camerunensis''
Simon, 1903 – Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea
*''
Macrothele cangshanensis''
Z. B. Yang, Zhao, Zhang & Z. Z. Yang, 2018 – China
*''
Macrothele cretica''
Kulczyński, 1903 – Greece (Crete)
*''
Macrothele decemnotata''
Simon, 1909 – Vietnam
*''
Macrothele drolshageni''
Özkütük, Elverici, Yağmur & Kunt, 2019 – Turkey
*''
Macrothele gigas''
Shimojana & Haupt, 1998 – Japan (Ryukyu Is.)
*''
Macrothele guizhouensis''
Hu & Li, 1986 – China
*''
Macrothele hanfeii''
Lin & Li, 2021 – China (Hainan)
*''
Macrothele holsti''
Pocock, 1901 – Taiwan
*''
Macrothele hungae''
Lin & Li, 2021 – Taiwan
*''
Macrothele incisa''
Benoit, 1965 – Congo
*''
Macrothele jingzhao''
Chen, Jiang & Yang, 2020 – China
*''
Macrothele jinlin''
Z. B. Yang, Zhao, Zhang & Z. Z. Yang, 2018 – China
*''
Macrothele limenghuai''
Lin & Li, 2021 – China
*''
Macrothele maculata''
( Thorell, 1890) – Myanmar, Indonesia (Sumatra, Java)
**''
M. m. annamensis''
Hogg, 1922 – Vietnam
*''
Macrothele menglunensis''
Li & Zha, 2013 – China
*''
Macrothele mingsheng''
Wu & Z. Z. Yang, 2022 – China
*''
Macrothele monocirculata''
Xu & Yin, 2000 – China
*''
Macrothele multispine''
Wang, Li & Yang, 2019 – China
*''
Macrothele nanning''
Lin & Li, 2021 – China
*''
Macrothele proserpina''
Simon, 1909 – Vietnam
*''
Macrothele raveni''
Zhu, Li & Song, 2000 – China
*''
Macrothele sanheensis''
Tang, Zhao & Yang, 2020 – China
*''
Macrothele segmentata''
Simon, 1892 – Malaysia
*''
Macrothele simplicata''
(Saito, 1933) – Taiwan
*''
Macrothele triangularis''
Benoit, 1965 – Congo
*''
Macrothele undata''
Tang, Zhao & Yang, 2020 – China
*''
Macrothele vidua''
Simon, 1906 – India
*''
Macrothele washanensis''
Wu & Z. Z. Yang, 2022 – China
*''
Macrothele wuliangensis''
Wu & Z. Z. Yang, 2022 – China
*''
Macrothele yani''
Xu, Yin & Griswold, 2002 – China
*''
Macrothele yongshengensis''
Z. B. Yang, Zhao & Z. Z. Yang, 2019 – China
*''
Macrothele yunlingensis''
Z. B. Yang, Zhao & Z. Z. Yang, 2019 – China
See also
*
Raventoxin
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q98876
Macrothelidae
Mygalomorphae genera
Spiders of Asia
Spiders of Africa