Oecobius Lucas, 1846

Magalhães, Mayara D. F. & Santos, Adalberto J., 2018, The spider family Oecobiidae in Madagascar, including four new species and a new record, Zootaxa 4527 (1), pp. 37-48 : 38

Genus Oecobius Lucas, 1846

Type species. Oecobius cellariorum Dugès, 1836 .

Emended genus diagnosis. Oecobius can be distinguished from Uroctea Dufour, 1820 , Urocteana Roewer, 1820 and Uroecobius Kullmann & Zimmermann, 1976 by the presence of a cribellum and calamistrum. It resembles Paroecobius in the ocular quadrangle as long as or longer than wide ( Santos & Gonzaga, 2008; Chamberlin & Ivie, 1935), while in Platoecobius Chamberlin & Ivie, 1935 the ocular quadrangle is wider than long. Oecobius species differ from Paroecobius by the eyes with approximately the same size, and only the anterior lateral eyes and the posterior median eyes opalescent. The anterior median eyes and the posterior lateral eyes are dark with a black ring on cuticular base ( Lamoral 1981; Chamberlin & Ivie 1935: fig. 4).

Remarks. Oecobius is the largest genus of the family, comprising an impressive morphological diversity (see illustrations in Shear 1970, Shear and Benoit 1974, Wunderlich 1987, 1992, 1995a, Santos & Gonzaga 2003, 2008). The wide distribution and high morphological diversity of the genus suggest it could not be monophyletic and should be divided in several genera. Thus, the diagnosis presented above should be seen as provisional.

Composition and distribution. 89 species with worldwide distribution ( World Spider Catalog 2018).