Taxon classification Animalia Araneae Liphistiidae

Family Liphistiidae Thorell, 1869

Diagnosis.

Unlike all other extant spiders, Liphistiidae possess tergites on all abdominal segments (Figure 3), their spinnerets are located in the middle of abdominal venter (Figure 4), and in addition to a narrow sternum they also possess another narrow ventral plate, the sternite, located adjacent to coxae IV (Figure 4).

Description.

Medium to large sized ground dwelling and burrowing spiders, chelicerae with a single row of teeth, two pairs of book lungs (Figure 4), tibial spurs specialized as sense organs. Their ground burrows are closed with trapdoors, with or without additional concentric signal lines (Figure 2b, d, f, h, j, l, n, p).

Composition. Ganthela Xu & Kuntner, gen. n., Heptathela Kishida, 1923, Liphistius Schiödte, 1849, Qiongthela Xu & Kuntner, gen. n., Ryuthela Haupt, 1983, Sinothela Haupt, 2003a, Songthela Ono, 2000, and Vinathela Ono, 2000.

Distribution.

China, Indonesia (Sumatra), Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.