Theridiosomatidae Simon 1881
Creators: name: Miller, Jeremy
name: Griswold, Charles
name: Yin, Chang
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2009
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Theridiosomatidae

description: Family Theridiosomatidae Simon, 1881 Theridiosomatid genera were reviewed by Coddington (1986a). Since then, new species have been described but the systematic structure of the family has remained almost unchanged. The only exceptions are found in Saaristo’s (1996) work, which included the revalidation of <i>Andasta</i> Simon, 1895, reversing Coddington’s (1986a) synonymy with <i>Theridiosoma</i> O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1879, and the creation of the new genus <i>Zoma</i> Saaristo, 1996. Coddington (1986a) noted that some species groups within <i>Theridiosoma</i> might warrant generic status but synonymized <i>Andasta</i> and <i>Theridiosoma</i> pending further study of the phylogenetic relationships within the group. We have no prejudice about whether such a study would support reciprocally monophyletic clades that could be usefully circumscribed as <i>Andasta</i> and <i>Theridiosoma</i>. We are critical of Saaristo’s revalidation of <i>Andasta</i> in a work with narrow geographic focus, rather than as part of a global treatment of the group including a list of species assigned to each genus. A second species of <i>Zoma</i>, including the first known male, is described here. The new genus <i>Coddingtonia</i> is established to accommodate a remarkable theridiosomatid known only from the female. All theridiosomatids except members of the Neotropical genus <i>Chthonos</i> Coddington, 1986 build orb webs though some are so highly modified as to be hardly recognizable as such. As is typical of members of this genus elsewhere, Gaoligongshan members of <i>Theridiosoma</i> build an orb that is pulled down into a cone by a tension line held by the spider at the hub (Fig. 7C, D). <i>Ogulnius</i> in the Gaoligongshan also build orbs that are typical of that genus (Fig. 7A, B): the webs have sparse non-sticky elements, lack a frame, have radii attaching directly to the substrate that join to one another irregularly near the hub, and have a sticky spiral winding in an irregular trajectory. <b>Diagnosis.</b> Theridiosomatidae are small to minute spiders with short to medium length legs and large male palpal bulbs (Figs 4A, 12A). Synapomorphies for the family proposed by Coddington (1986a) are a pair of pits on the anterior margin of the sternum near the labial base (Fig. 4D; character 41, absent from the Neotropical genus <i>Chthonos</i>), connate spermathecae (Fig. 11B, D; character 47), and an elongate dorsal trichobothrium on tibia IV (character 43). These features serve to diagnose the theridiosomatids of the Gaoligongshan, except that the spermathecae of the new genus <i>Coddingtonia</i> are separate (Fig. 11F) rather than connate.
description: Published as part of <i>Miller, Jeremy, Griswold, Charles &amp; Yin, Chang, 2009, The symphytognathoid spiders of the Gaoligongshan, Yunnan, China (Araneae: Araneoidea): Systematics and diversity of micro-orbweavers, pp. 9-195 in ZooKeys 11 (11)</i> on page 20, DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.11.160, http://zenodo.org/record/576459
description: {"references": ["Coddington JA (1986 a) The genera of the spider family Theridiosomatidae. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology 422: 1 - 96.", "Saaristo MJ (1996) Theridiosomatid spiders of the granitic islands of Seychelles. Phelsuma 4: 48 - 52.", "Pickard-Cambridge O (1879) On some new and rare British spiders, with characters of a new genus. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 24: 190 - 215, plate 12."]}