Cithaeronidae

Cithaeronidae is a small family of araneomorph spiders first described by Simon in 1893[1] Female Cithaeron are about 5 to 7 millimetres (0.20 to 0.28 in) long, males about 4 millimetres (0.16 in).[2]

Cithaeronidae
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Infraorder: Araneomorphae
Family: Cithaeronidae
Simon, 1893
Genera
Diversity
2 genera, 11 species

They are pale yellowish, fast-moving spiders that actively hunt at night and rest during the day, building silken retreats below rocks.[3] They prefer very hot, dry stony places.[2]

Distribution

While Inthaeron occurs only in India, members of the genus Cithaeron are found in Africa, India and parts of Eurasia. Three adult females of C. praedonius were found in Teresina, Piauí, Brazil. As they were found in and near human housings, they presumably were accidentally introduced.[3] This is probably also the case for finds in the Northern Territory of Australia.

Another population of C. praedonius has been discovered in Florida U.S.A., with reports of a stable breeding population.(Pers. comm. Joseph Stiles)

Genera and Species

This section lists all described species accepted by the World Spider Catalog as of December 2020:[4]

Cithaeron O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1872

  • C. contentum Jocqué & Russell-Smith, 2011 — South Africa
  • C. delimbatus Strand, 1906 — East Africa
  • C. dippenaarae Bosmans & Van Keer, 2015 — Morocco
  • C. indicus Platnick & Gajbe, 1994 — India
  • C. jocqueorum Platnick, 1991 — Ivory Coast
  • C. praedonius O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1872 (type) — North Africa, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Middle East to India, Malaysia. Introduced to USA, Cuba, Brazil, Australia (Northern Territory)
  • C. reimoseri Platnick, 1991 — Eritrea, Brazil (probably introduced)

Inthaeron Platnick, 1991

  • I. longipes (Gravely, 1931) — India
  • I. rossi Platnick, 1991 (type) — India

References
  1. Simon, E. (1893). Histoire naturelle das araignées.
  2. Murphy, Frances; Murphy, John (2000). "An Introduction to the Spiders of South East Asia". Malaysian Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur.
  3. Carvalho, L.S.; Bonaldo, A. B.; Brescovit, A. D. (2007). "The first record of the family Cithaeronidae (Araneae, Gnaphosoidea) to the new world" (PDF). Revista Brasileira de Zoologia. 24 (2): 512–514. doi:10.1590/S0101-81752007000200034.
  4. "Family: Cithaeronidae Simon,1893". World Spider Catalog Version 20.0. Natural History Museum Bern. 2021. doi:10.24436/2. Retrieved 2021-01-08.
  • Platnick, N.I. (2002): A revision of the Australasian ground spiders of the families Ammoxenidae, Cithaeronidae, Gallieniellidae, and Trochanteriidae (Araneae, Gnaphosoidea). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 271. PDF (26Mb) — Abstract


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