Typical Spiders (lat. Araneomorphae)

Typical Spiders
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Araneomorphae (sometimes referred to as Labidognatha) is an infraorder of spiders. They are distinguished by having fangs that oppose each other and cross in a pinching action, in contrast to the Mygalomorphae (tarantulas and their close kin), which have fangs that are nearly parallel in alignment. With the exception of the Hypochilidae spiders, they have at most a single pair of book lungs. Both Araneomorphae and Mygalomorphae belong to the suborder Opisthothelae, which comprises nearly all…

families

Who belongs here?

Typical Spiders: families (7)
Comb-footed Spiders
Comb-footed Spiders

Distinguishing characteristics

Most spider species are Araneomorphae, which have fangs that face towards each other, increasing the orientations that they can employ during prey-capture. They have fewer book lungs (when present) – usually one pair – and the females typically live one year.
The Mygalomorphae have fangs that face towards the ground, and which are parallel to the long axis of the spider’s body, thus they have only one orientation they can employ during prey capture. They have two pairs of book lungs, and the females often live many years.

Crab Spiders
Crab Spiders

Spiders included

Almost all of the familiar spiders are included in the Araneomorphae group, one major exception being the tarantulas. There are a few other Mygalomorphae species that live around homes or gardens, but they typically are relatively small and not easily noticed. The Araneomorphae, to the contrary, include the weavers of spiral webs; the cobweb spiders that live in the corners of rooms, and between windows and screens; the crab spiders that lurk on the surfaces of flowers in gardens; the jumping spiders that are visible hunting on surfaces; the wolf spiders that carpet hunting sites in sunny spots; and the large huntsman spiders.

Ghost Spiders
Ghost Spiders

Systematics

In older schemes, the Araneomorphae were divided into two lineages, the Hypochilae (containing only the family Hypochilidae), and the Neocribellatae. The Neocribellatae were in turn divided into the Austrochiloidea, and the two series Haplogynae and Entelogynae, each containing several superfamilies. Molecular phylogenetic studies have shown that the haplogynes in particular are not a monophyletic group. A 2020 study suggested the relationships among the major groups were as shown in the following cladogram.

The blue bar to the right shows the former Haplogynae in the sense of Coddington (2005).

Jumping Spiders
Jumping Spiders

Media related to Araneomorphae at Wikimedia Commons Data related to Araneomorphae at Wikispecies

Ancestry graph

Arthropods Arachnids Typical Spiders Comb-footed Spiders Crab Spiders Ghost Spiders Jumping Spiders Orbweavers Running Crab Spiders Sheetweb and Dwarf Weavers

Copyright and source information

This project wouldn’t exist without Wikipedia and iNaturalist! As citizen scientists, we benefit enormously from the community’s shared knowledge. This article uses material from Wikipedia and iNaturalist. The images on this website are licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Araneomorphae the free encyclopedia Wikipedia which is released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License). On Wikipedia a list of authors is available.

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Comb-footed Spiders
Comb-footed Spiders
Crab Spiders
Crab Spiders
Ghost Spiders
Ghost Spiders
Jumping Spiders
Jumping Spiders
Orbweavers
Orbweavers
Running Crab Spiders
Running Crab Spiders
Sheetweb and Dwarf Weavers
Sheetweb and Dwarf Weavers
Buzzing Spider
Buzzing Spider