Nanometinae FORSTER & FORSTER 1999
Creators: name: Álvarez-Padilla, Fernando
name: Hormiga, Gustavo
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2011
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Tetragnathidae

description: NANOMETINAE FORSTER & FORSTER, 1999  NEW RANK (FIGS 4F, 71–76, 87–91, 96–99)    Type genus: Nanometa Simon, 1908. This family name was first proposed by Forster & Forster (1999: 166) at the family rank, but it has never been formally diagnosed.   
 Diagnosis: Nanometines can be differentiated from other tetragnathids by the following combination of characters: female cheliceral denticles present (84-1: Figs 73C, 88D), absence of trichobothria on femur IV (Fig. 73F) and the remaining femora, female genital openings often plugged with amorphous material (132-3: Figs 74A, 98B), male palpal patella without macrosetae (180-0: Figs 73D, 97H), conductor originating on the centre of the tegulum (55-0), solid, uniform degree of sclerotization between tegulum and conductor (59-0); and tubular embolus shape (67-0) (Figs 75E, 76A–C, 90C, 91A). These six characters also represent the morphological synapomorphies supporting this lineage obtained by the total evidence analysis of Dimitrov & Hormiga (2011), in which they are labelled as ‘ Nanometa clade’ (see also Álvarez- Padilla et al., 2009). Additional diagnostic characters of nanometines are the female copulatory ducts longer than the spermathecae length (146-2; Figs 74B, 89D, 98D), shorter in Pinkfloydia Dimitrov & Hormiga, 2011: figs 8G, H, 15F); the presence of a cymbium ectobasal process (26-1); and having the cymbium ectomedian process more than half the cymbial width (30-1: Figs 75A, 90A, C, 99D). The characteristic branched tracheal system of many nanometines (such as Nanometa and ‘ Orsinome ’ sarasini; see Forster & Forster, 1999: 166) is not found in Pinkfloydia, which has its median tracheal trunks confined to the abdomen and not branched (Dimitrov & Hormiga, 2011).   
 Taxonomic and natural history: Forster & Forster (1999) were the first to recognize this group endemic to Australasia as ‘Nanometidae’ and discussed some interesting aspects of nanometine anatomy such as the presence of an stridulatory organ on the booklung covers of males opposite to a row of denticles on the IV coxa (Figs 71A, B, 73E). They also included in their ‘Nanometidae’ the monotypic genus Eryciniolia Strand, 1912 and Orsinome lagenifera (Urquhart, 1888). There are many species to be described in Nanometinae, some which are new (e.g. Dimitrov & Hormiga, 2011) but others are misplaced, such as the case of ‘ Orsinome ’ sarasini (Figs 143A, B, 144), which is not congeneric with the type species of Orsinome and belongs in the Nanometinae. At the present time Nanometinae includes the genera Nanometa and Pinkfloydia. The monophyly of Nanometinae has been tested in recent phylogenetic analyses that also included molecular data and the group is relatively well supported (Álvarez-Padilla et al., 2009; Dimitrov & Hormiga, 2011).
description: Published as part of Álvarez-Padilla, Fernando & Hormiga, Gustavo, 2011, Morphological and phylogenetic atlas of the orb-weaving spider family Tetragnathidae (Araneae: Araneoidea), pp. 713-879 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 162 (4) on pages 802-803, DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2011.00692.x, http://zenodo.org/record/5440885