Trapdoor Spider

Trapdoor spider is a

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often con ...

that is used to refer to various

spiders Spiders (order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species di ...

from several different groups that create burrows with a silk-hinged trapdoor to help them ambush prey. Several families within the

infraorder Order () is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between Family_(biology), family and Class_(biology), class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classific ...

Mygalomorphae The Mygalomorphae, or mygalomorphs, are an infraorder of spiders, and comprise one of three major groups of living spiders with over 3,000 species, found on all continents except Antarctica. Many members are known as trapdoor spiders due to t ...

contain trapdoor spiders: *

Actinopodidae Actinopodidae is a family of mygalomorph spiders found in mainland Australia and South America usually in open forest. Species are most common in Queensland, Australia. It includes mouse spiders ('' Missulena'' species), whose bites, though rar ...

, a family otherwise known as 'mouse-spiders', in South America and Australia * Antrodiaetidae, a family of 'folding trapdoor spiders' from the United States and Japan * Barychelidae, a family of 'brush-footed trapdoor spiders' with

pantropical A pantropical ("all tropics") distribution is one which covers tropical regions of both the Eastern and Western hemispheres. Examples of species include caecilians, modern sirenians and the plant genera ''Acacia'' and ''Bacopa''. ''Neotropical' ...

distribution * Ctenizidae, a family of ' cork-lid trapdoor spiders' in

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

and

subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones immediately to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Ge ...

regions * Cyrtaucheniidae, a family of 'wafer-lid trapdoor spiders, with wide distribution except cooler regions *

Euctenizidae The Euctenizidae (formerly Cyrtaucheniidae subfamily Euctenizinae) are a family of mygalomorph spiders. They are now considered to be more closely related to Idiopidae. Etymology The name comes from the Greek prefix (''eu-''), meaning "valu ...

, a family of spiders that make wafer-like or cork-like trapdoors * Halonoproctidae, a family of spiders that make wafer-like or cork-like trapdoors and includes the phragmotic genus '' Cyclocosmia'' *

Idiopidae Idiopidae, also known as armored or spiny trapdoor spiders, is a family of mygalomorph spiders first described by Eugène Simon Eugène Louis Simon (; 30 April 1848 – 17 November 1924) was a French naturalist who worked particularly o ...

, a family of 'spurred-trapdoor spiders' or 'armoured trapdoors' mostly in Southern Hemisphere * Migidae, also known as 'ridge fanged trapdoor spiders' or 'tree trapdoor spiders', in the Southern Hemisphere * Nemesiidae, a family of 'tube trapdoor spiders', with both tropical and

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (approximately 23.5° to 66.5° N/S of the Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ran ...

species worldwide *

Theraphosidae Tarantulas comprise a group of large and often hairy spiders of the family Theraphosidae. , 1,100 species have been identified, with 166 genera. The term "tarantula" is usually used to describe members of the family Theraphosidae, although ...

, a family of tarantulas (where just a few species make trapdoors), also with wide distribution There is also one family of trapdoor spiders in the suborder

Mesothelae The Mesothelae are a suborder of spiders (order Araneae). , two extant families were accepted by the World Spider Catalog, Liphistiidae and Heptathelidae. Alternatively, the Heptathelidae can be treated as a subfamily of a more broadly circum ...

: * Liphistiidae, a family of spiders with armoured abdomens from Southeast Asia, China and Japan {{Set index article, animals Set index articles on spiders Set index articles on animal common names