Taxonomic revision of the spider family Penestomidae (Araneae, Entelegynae)
Author
Miller, Jeremy A.
Author
Griswold, Charles E.
Author
Haddad, Charles R.
text
Zootaxa
2010
2534
1
36
http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/2010/f/zt02534p036.pdf
journal article
zt02534p036
8F657D94-8DD3-4184-BB90-A43C3268DF42
Family
Penestomidae
Simon, 1903
Penestominae
Simon, 1903
: 979
.
Type
genus
Penestomus
Simon, 1902
.
Lehtinen, 1967: 385-390
;
Dippenaar-Schoeman, 1989: 131.
Penestomidae
. Miller et al., 2010: 801.
Affinities. Removal of the
Penestominae
from the
Eresidae
was justified by analysis of molecular sequence data (Miller et al. 2010). These data consistently indicated that penestomines are close to the
Zodariidae
, and that this relationship has significantly better support than one constrained to include a monophyletic
Eresidae
including
Penestominae
(Shimodaira & Hasegawa 1999)
. One line of morphological evidence that could support a close relationship between zodariids and penestomids has to do with the arrangement of spigots on the anterior lateral spinnerets. Typically, the major ampullate gland spigots (
MAP
) are placed on the margin of the spinning field (e.g. see Griswold et al. 2005, fig. 49
B
) but in both zodariids (Miller et al. 2010, fig.
2
E
) and penestomids (Fig. 6
B
) the MAP are placed in the center of the field of piriform gland spigots (
PI
).
The
Zodariidae
are diagnosed by several characters not found in
Penestominae
(i.e. absence of serrula, lateral implantation of tarsal claw teeth, long anterior lateral spinnerets; see
Jocque
1991). Inclusion of
Penestominae
within the entirely ecribellate
Zodariidae
would radically change and complicate the diagnosis of this expanded family concept. For these reasons, Miller et al. (2010) promoted
Penestominae
to family rank.