Mecysmaucheniidae is a

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

of araneomorph

spider Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and ran ...

s 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 1895. Most genera occur in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

(

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 ...

and

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 ...

), with two genera endemic to

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

Genera

, the World Spider Catalog accepts the following genera: *'' Aotearoa'' Forster & Platnick, 1984 – New Zealand *'' Chilarchaea'' Forster & Platnick, 1984 – Chile, Argentina *'' Mecysmauchenioides'' Forster & Platnick, 1984 – Chile, Argentina *'' Mecysmauchenius'' Simon, 1884 – Chile, Argentina *'' Mesarchaea'' Forster & Platnick, 1984 – Chile *'' Semysmauchenius'' Forster & Platnick, 1984 – Chile *'' Zearchaea'' Wilton, 1946 – New Zealand

Genera

See also

References

Further reading