Macrothele

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Macrothele
Macrothele.gigas.female.frontal.-.tanikawa.jpg
Threatening female M. gigas
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Infraorder: Mygalomorphae
Family: Macrothelidae
Genus: Macrothele
Ausserer, 1871[1]
Type species
M. calpeiana
(Walckenaer, 1805)
Species

31, see text

Synonyms[1]
  • Orientothele Mirza, Sanap & Kunte, 2017[2]

Macrothele is a genus of mygalomorph spiders in the family Macrothelidae, and was first described by A. Ausserer in 1871.[3] It is the only genus in the family Macrothelidae, and most species occur in Asia, from India to Japan, and Java, with four found in Africa, and two in Europe.[1] The name is derived from Ancient Greek μακρός ("makro-"), meaning "big", and θηλή ("thele"), referring to the spinnerets.[citation needed]

Description[]

Nest of M. gigas

Spiders of this genus are fairly large, with females of some Chinese species ranging from 1 to 3 centimetres (0.4 to 1.2 in) in body length. Males are smaller, sometimes only half that length.[4] Macrothelids can be distinguished from other mygalomorph spiders by their larger posterior sigillae on the sternum, and the arrangement of the rows of teeth on the margin of the chelicerae: larger front-facing margin and smaller rear-facing.[5]

These spiders build tube-webs or funnel-webs under rocks or logs, or in crevices in the ground.[4]

Taxonomy[]

The genus Macrothele was erected by Anton Ausserer in 1871, with the type species being Macrothele calpeiana, formerly Mygale calpeiana.[1][citation needed] Ausserer placed the genus in the then very broadly defined family Theraphosidae. It was later placed in the Dipluridae and the Hexathelidae before being transferred to the Macrothelidae in 2018.[1] A molecular phylogenetic study in 2018 suggested that Macrothele was a distinct, early diverging lineage within the Mygalomorphae. Accordingly, Simon's subfamily Macrothelinae was elevated to the family Macrothelidae. There is some doubt if the western and eastern species should be grouped in the same genus.[6]

The following cladogram shows the possible relationship of Macrothele to related taxa:[5]

 
 

Dipluridae

 
 
 

Hexathelidae

 
 
 

Porrhothelidae

 
 
 

Macrothele (Macrothelidae)

 
 
 
 

Calisoga (Nemesiidae)

 
 

Hebestatis (Halonoproctidae)

 
 
 
 

Atracidae

 
 

Actinopodidae

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Species[]

Female M. yaginumai

As of May 2019, it contains 31 species and one subspecies from the western Mediterranean and West Africa to Southeast Asia, mainland China, and Taiwan:[1]

  • Benoit, 1965 – Congo
  • (Mirza, Sanap & Kunte, 2017) – India
  • Shimojana & Haupt, 1998 – Japan (Ryukyu Is.)
  • Xu & Yin, 2001 – China, Laos
  • Macrothele calpeiana (Walckenaer, 1805) (type) – Spain, Italy, North Africa
  • Simon, 1903 – Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea
  • Z. B. Yang, Zhao, Zhang & Z. Z. Yang, 2018 – China
  • Macrothele cretica Kulczyński, 1903 – Greece (Crete)
  • Simon, 1909 – Vietnam
  • Özkütük, Elverici, Yağmur & Kunt, 2019 – Turkey
  • Shimojana & Haupt, 1998 – Japan (Ryukyu Is.), Taiwan
  • Hu & Li, 1986 – China
  • Pocock, 1901 – Taiwan
  • Zhu & Song, 2000 – China
  • Benoit, 1965 – Congo
  • Z. B. Yang, Zhao, Zhang & Z. Z. Yang, 2018 – China
  • (Thorell, 1890) – Myanmar, Indonesia (Sumatra, Java)
    • Hogg, 1922 – Vietnam
  • Li & Zha, 2013 – China
  • Xu & Yin, 2000 – China
  • Pocock, 1901 – China, Hong Kong
  • Simon, 1909 – Vietnam
  • Zhu, Li & Song, 2000 – China
  • Simon, 1892 – Malaysia
  • (Saito, 1933) – Taiwan
  • Shimojana & Haupt, 1998 – Taiwan
  • Benoit, 1965 – Congo
  • Pavesi, 1898 – Indonesia (Java)
  • Simon, 1906 – India
  • Shimojana & Haupt, 1998 – Japan (Ryukyu Is.)
  • Xu, Yin & Griswold, 2002 – China
  • Zhu & Song, 2000 – China

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f "Gen. Macrothele Ausserer, 1871". World Spider Catalog Version 20.0. Natural History Museum Bern. 2019. doi:10.24436/2. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
  2. ^ Drolshagen, B. (2017). "Orientothele Mirza, Sanap & Kunte, 2017 is a junior synonym of Macrothele Ausserer, 1871 (Araneae: Hexathelidae)". Arachnology. 17 (6): 282. doi:10.13156/arac.2017.17.6.282.
  3. ^ Ausserer, A. (1871). "Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Arachniden-Familie der Territelariae Thorell (Mygalidae Autor)". Verhandlungen der Kaiserlich-Königlichen Zoologisch-Botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien. 21: 117–224.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b Zhu, M.S. & Song, D.X. (2000). "Review of the Chinese funnel-web spiders of the genus Macrothele, with descriptions of two new species (Araneae:Hexathelidae)" (PDF). The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 48 (1): 59–64. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-02-05. Retrieved 2018-05-20(with key to Chinese species)CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b Hedin, M.; Derkarabetian, S.; Ramírez, M.J.; Vink, C. & Bond, J.E. (2018). "Phylogenomic reclassification of the world's most venomous spiders (Mygalomorphae, Atracinae), with implications for venom evolution". Scientific Reports. 8 (1636): 1–7. doi:10.1038/s41598-018-19946-2. PMC 5785998. PMID 29374214.
  6. ^ Murphy, Frances & Murphy, John (2000). An Introduction to the Spiders of South East Asia. Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Nature Society.
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