Psechridae 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 with about 70 species in two genera. These are among the biggest cribellate spiders with body lengths up to and funnel webs more than in diameter. The family belongs to the RTA clade of spiders because they all have a Retrolateral Tibial Apophysis on the male

pedipalp Pedipalps (commonly shortened to palps or palpi) are the secondary pair of forward appendages among Chelicerata, chelicerates – a group of arthropods including spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders. The pedipalps are lateral to ...

. A recent phylogenetic analysis places Psechridae as close relatives of the lynx spiders,

wolf spider Wolf spiders are members of the family Lycosidae (), named for their robust and agile hunting skills and excellent eyesight. They live mostly in solitude, hunt alone, and usually do not spin webs. Some are opportunistic hunters, pouncing upon ...

s, and nursery web spiders. They feature several characteristics normally found in ecribellate spiders, for example brood care behavior, and a colulus with no apparent function. They have greatly elongated legs, with the last element being very flexible. Female '' Psechrus'' carry their egg-sac in the

chelicerae The chelicerae () are the arthropod mouthparts, mouthparts of the subphylum Chelicerata, an arthropod group that includes arachnids, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders. Commonly referred to as "jaws", chelicerae may be shaped as either articulated ...

, similar to their relatives, the ecribellate

Pisauridae Nursery web spiders (Pisauridae) are a family of araneomorph spiders first described by Eugène Simon in 1890. Females of the family are known for building special nursery webs. When their eggs are about to hatch, a female spider builds a tent-li ...

. Members of ''Psechrus'' construct horizontal webs lace webs, while ''Fecenia'' construct pseudo-orbs, similar to orb webs of Orbiculariae spiders in an example of

evolutionary convergence Convergent evolution is the independent evolution of similar features in species of different periods or epochs in time. Convergent evolution creates analogous structures that have similar form or function but were not present in the last comm ...

Distribution

They occur in southeastern Asia, ranging from India in the west, to Solomon Islands in the east, reaching as far south as northern Australia, and north to central

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. They are found in forest, rocky areas, and caves from lowlands to altitudes exceeding .

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: *'' Fecenia'' Simon, 1887 — Asia, Australia *'' Psechrus'' Thorell, 1878 — Asia, Australia * †'' Eomatachia'' Petrunkevitch, 1942 (fossil,

oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch (geology), epoch of the Paleogene Geologic time scale, Period that extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that defin ...

)

Distribution

Genera

See also

References

Further reading