Selenopidae
| Wall crab spiders | |
|---|---|
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| |
| Selenops insularis Jamaica | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae |
| Infraorder: | Araneomorphae |
| Family: | Selenopidae Simon, 1897 |
| Genera | |
|
Anyphops Benoit, 1968 | |
| Diversity | |
| 4 genera, 189 species | |
| |
The Selenopidae are a family of araneomorph spiders, sometimes called wall crab spiders. The Selenopidae are one of several families whose English name includes the phrase "crab spider". This family consists of about 175 species in four genera, of which Selenops is the best known. The family is primarily tropical with the genus Anyphops confined to Sub-Saharan Africa and the genus Hovops confined to Madagascar. The spiders are very flat and are commonly found on walls or under rocks. They are quite agile, making them difficult to capture. In addition, their coloring makes them often quite difficult to see. Like almost all Entelegynae, they have eight eyes. At least one (possibly extinct) species of Garcorops, G. jadis, is known only from subfossil copal.[1]
Genera
- Anyphops (Africa, Madagascar)
- Garcorops (Madagascar, Comoro Islands)
- Hovops (Madagascar, Reunion)
- Selenops (America, Asia, Africa, Mediterranean)
See also
References
- ^ Bosselaers, J. (2004). "A new Garcorops species from Madagascar copal (Araneae: Selenopidae)" (PDF). Zootaxa. 445: 1–7.
- Penney, D., Ono, H. & Selden, P.A. (2005). A new synonymy for the Madagascan copal spider fauna (Araneae, Selenopidae). J. Afrotrop. Zool. 2:41-44. PDF
External links
