ATYPIDAE

Levy, Gershom, 2007, Calommata (Atypidae) and new spider species (Araneae) from Israel, Zootaxa 1551, pp. 1-30 : 3

ATYPIDAE

The Atypidae with the dorsal residual scutum on the opisthosoma are an ancestral spider family of the Mygalomorphae infraorder. They are characterized by the extremely elongate inner portion of the palpal coxa (= endite; Figs. 2, 5), and the structure of the posterior median spinnerets with their obliquely truncated tips (Fig. 7). This relatively small family consists of three genera with about 33 species ( Platnick 2004). None was ever recorded from Israel. Actually except for two males of an Atypus species from Mesanderan, Iran ( Kraus & Baur 1974; Schwendinger 1990) no atypid was ever reported from the Middle East. The atypid species recently discovered in Israel belongs to Calommata .