Genus Newportia Gervais, 1847

Type-species. Newportia longitarsis (Newport, 1845) (by monotypy).

Range. Neotropics: from Mexico to Paraguay, including Caribbean islands.

Remarks. Here I describe a new difference between clade Newportiinae (i.e. genera Newportia and Tidops Chamberlin, 1915) vs. Scolopocryptopinae and Ectonocryptopinae. The representatives of both Scolopocryptopinae and Ectonocryptopinae have a simple, pointed tip to the spinous processes of ultimate legs and coxopleural process. In the species of Newportiinae, however, as illustrated by Lewis (1989) in his description of Newportia longitarsis virginensis Lewis, 1989, the apical part of these processes are curved caudad and have a harpoon-like tip (Fig. 12). The latter is usually accompanied by a long seta (markedly longer than tip itself) (see fig. 28 in Lewis, 1989). This character is a new synapomorphy for Newportiinae; perhaps the adaptive role of these “harpoons” (at least those on the coxopleural processes) is connected with spinning the web on which the spermatophore is deposited in males or with the taking up of spermatophores in females.