Mysmenidae Petrunkevitch, 1928
EOL Text
The spider family Mysmenidae (dwarf cobweb weavers) includes 130 described species (Platnick 2013). The family is primarily tropical (Bradley 2013), but a half dozen species are known from North America north of Mexico (Lopardo and Coddington 2005).
Mysmenids are tiny spiders that live near the ground, typically in leaf litter and similar microhabitats in very humid areas. Mysmenid webs are unusual among orb-weaving spiders in their pronounced three-dimensionality. Rather than spin radial lines in the same plane as the orb, so much of the web is out of this plane that it resembles a space filling web like that of a theridiid. At least in Mysmena, the out-of-plane radii are left over from exploration of the web site; these exploratory lines would normally be removed by most orbweavers (Lopardo and Coddington 2005). Some mysmenids apparently do not build their own webs at all (some have even lost the ability to produce the sticky silk characteristic of orbweavers), instead stealing prey from the webs of other spiders. Lopardo and Coddington (2005) should be consulted for details, including illustrations, about web construction by various mysmenid genera and species. Like so many other spiders, mysmenids have eight eyes arranged in two rows, but in many (all?) species the eyes are white, except for the dark anterior median eyes.
Lopardo and Coddington (2005) report on known habitat associations for some North American species, although they note that this family has been poorly collected. These authors also review the rather tangled taxonomic history of this group.
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Mysmenids are one of the least studied groups of orb-weaving spiders, mainly because of their minuscule size (0.6-3 mm; Fig. 1) and cryptic life history. The family Mysmenidae is distributed worldwide, and with only around 100 described species, the diversity of mysmenids is clearly under-sampled as numerous undescribed species of this family have been collected and/or exist in museum collections around the world.
Mysmenids live mainly in leaf litter and other cryptic places in humid habitats. Mysmenid web-spinning species seem to usually prefer the interstices of leaf litter and small cavities about 5-15 cm in diameter (depending on the size of the spider) created by the top layer of leaves. They can be collected by beating foliage, using pitfall traps, Berlese funnels, Winkler devices (e.g. Wheeler and McHugh, 1987), or just manually.
Only a few mysmenid spiders have been documented from the fossil record (eight species in five genera). Seven fossil mysmenids have been described from Tertiary ambers from the Miocene (15–20 Ma; two species from Dominican amber), Miocene–Oligocene (19–27 Ma, one species from Chiapas amber), and Eocene (44 Ma, two species from the Baltic amber, and two species from the Baltic and Bitterfeld ambers). A relatively recent species was described from Madagascan copal (a semi-fossilized resin less than two million years old).
Figure 1. Representatives of Mysmenidae.
Left: Mysmena tasmaniae female. Center: Microdipoena nyungwe male. Right: Maymena ambita male. Composite digital images © Lara Lopardo.
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| Rights holder/Author | Gustavo Hormiga, Lara Lopardo, Tree of Life web project |
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Mysmenids resemble some theridiids in their somatic morphology, as well as some members of the more closely related symphytognathoid families (Anapidae, Symphytognathidae, Theridiosomatidae and Synaphridae).
Male mysmenids can be distinguished from other araneoids by the presence of a metatarsal clasping spine on the first legs (Fig. 2) and by a particular composition and arrangement of their copulatory organs (palps, Fig. 3). Females have a distinct dark modification, like a spot, on the apical ventral surface of at least the first femur (Fig. 4, sometimes on the second femur and in some species such modification is also present in males). Both sexes of mysmenids have the anterior median eyes on a protruding area (or all eyes on tubercle); a prolateral row of modified setae on the first tarsus (Fig. 2); a distinctly thicker and curved seta on the chelicerae; and denticles in the cheliceral fang furrow (Fig. 5).
Figure 2. Features of the first leg of a male of Microdipoena nyungwe. Left: Prolateral clasping spines. Right: Prolateral tarsal row of modified setae. SEM images © Lara Lopardo
Figure 3. Left palps of male mysmenids (Cymbium depicted in green, Embolus in blue and Conductor in red). Left, center: Two unidentified Mysmena species; Right: Microdipoena nyungwe. SEM images © Lara Lopardo
Figure 4. Modifications of the first femur in female Calodipoena incredula (left) and Mysmenopsis dipluramigo (right). SEM images © Lara Lopardo
Figure 5. Denticles (highlighted in purple) in the cheliceral fang furrow of Maymena rica (left) and an unidentified mysmenid (right). SEM images © Lara Lopardo
Very little is known about the biology and natural history of mysmenids. Eleven species in three mysmenid genera have been reported to be kleptoparasites on the webs of other spiders, such as diplurids, tengellids, or lycosoids. The webs of most other mysmenids have never been documented. Mysmenids are known to build two main types of web architecture. Mysmena and Microdipoena species build highly modified three-dimensional spherical-shaped orb webs. In contrast, the webs of Maymena species are mainly planar but the central hub is distorted upwards by one to several radial lines that attach to substrate above the web. Members of the symphytognathoid family Anapidae build webs identical to the ones built by Maymena species.
Figure 6. Mysmenid webs. Top left: Mysmena tasmaniae (Queensland, Australia). Top center: female Mysmena sp. with eggsac (Misiones, Argentina). Top right: Mysmena sp. (Chiapas, Mexico), peripheral radial lines and sticky silk removed to expose hub. Bottom left: Maymena sp. (Misiones, Argentina). Bottom right: Same, detail to hub. Images © Lara Lopardo
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| Rights holder/Author | Gustavo Hormiga, Lara Lopardo, Tree of Life web project |
| Source | http://tolweb.org/Mysmenidae/2803 |
- Mysmenidae
- Anjouanella
- Brasilionata
- Calodipoena
- Calomyspoena
- Crassignatha
- Iardinis
- Isela
- Itapua
- Kekenboschiella
- Kilifina
- Leviola
- Maymena
- Microdipoena
- Mysmena
- Mysmenella
- Mysmeniola
- Mysmenopsis
- Phricotelus
- Tamasesia
- Taphiassa
- Trogloneta
After more than 80 years since the erection of the family, the first generic-level cladistic analysis of Mysmenidae is in progress (Lopardo and Hormiga, in prep.). This combined analysis using morphological and molecular data will test the monophyly of the family and its genera, and will also hypothesize a placement of Mysmenidae within the Symphytognathoidea. Until now the placement of Mysmenidae within this group has been based exclusively on morphology and behavior. Two cladistic analyses included mysmenids in the past (Griswold et al., 1998; Schütt 2003) and, to a limited extent, tested the monophyly of the family. These two analyses included only two mysmenid representatives. Both placed the Mysmenidae within Symphytognathoidea, either as sister to Symphytognathidae, or to a clade comprising Anapidae plus Symphytognathidae. More recently, a new phylogenetic hypothesis for Araneoidea and Symphytognathoidea has been proposed (Lopardo and Hormiga, 2008), revising and expanding some of the previous phylogenetic work. Lopardo and Hormiga (2008) placed Mysmenidae either as sister to the clade comprising Anapidae and Symphytognathidae (as originally proposed by Griswold et al., 1998) or as sister to Theridiosomatidae. Only two molecular phylogenetic analyses have included mysmenid representatives, as part of the outgroup taxa (Arnedo et al., 2004; Rix et al., 2008).
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| Rights holder/Author | Gustavo Hormiga, Lara Lopardo, Tree of Life web project |
| Source | http://tolweb.org/Mysmenidae/2803 |
Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) Stats
Specimen Records:114
Specimens with Sequences:109
Specimens with Barcodes:101
Species:23
Species With Barcodes:23
Public Records:40
Public Species:6
Public BINs:20
Mysmenidae is a spider family with about 123 described species in around twenty-three genera. The family is one of the least well known of the orb-weaving spiders because of their small size (0.76 to 3 mm (0.03 to 0.12 in)) and cryptic behaviour. These spiders are found in humid habitats such as among leaf litter and in caves.[1]
Contents
Distribution[edit]
Species occur in the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, New Guinea and several islands.
Genera[edit]
- Acrobleps Hickman, 1979 (Tasmania)
- Anjouanella Baert, 1986 (Comoro Islands)
- Brasilionata Wunderlich, 1995 (Brazil)
- Calodipoena Gertsch & Davis, 1936 (Central America, Caribic, Algeria)
- Calomyspoena Baert & Maelfait, 1983 (Galapagos)
- Crassignatha Wunderlich, 1995 (Malaysia)
- Iardinis Simon, 1899 (Nepal, India)
- Isela Griswold, 1985 (South Africa)
- Itapua Baert, 1984 (Paraguay)
- Kekenboschiella Baert, 1982 (New Guinea)
- Kilifina Baert & Murphy, 1992 (Kenya)
- Leviola Miller, 1970 (Angola)
- Maymena Gertsch, 1960 (Central to South America)
- Microdipoena Banks, 1895 (USA to Paraguay, Africa)
- Mysmena Simon, 1894 (Europe, Asia, Oceania)
- Mysmenella Brignoli, 1980 (Palearctic, Africa, Oceania)
- Mysmeniola Thaler, 1995 (Venezuela)
- Mysmenopsis Simon, 1897 (USA to Peru)
- Phricotelus Simon, 1895 (Sri Lanka)
- Tamasesia Marples, 1955 (Samoa, New Caledonia)
- Taphiassa Simon, 1880 (New Caledonia)
- Trogloneta Simon, 1922 (USA, Europe, Canary Islands)
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Lin, Yucheng; Li, Shuqiang (12 May 2013). "Two new species of the genera Mysmena and Trogloneta (Mysmenidae,Araneae) from Southwestern China". ZooKeys. Pensoft Publishers. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
- Coyle F.A., Meigs T.E. (1989). "Two new species of kleptoparasitic Mysmenopsis (Araneae, Mysmenidae) from Jamaica" (PDF). Journal of Arachnology 17 (1): 59–70.
- Coyle F.A., O'Shields T.C. Perlmutter D.G. (1991). "Observations on the behaviour of the kleptoparasitic spider, Mysmenopsis furtiva (Araneae, Mysmenidae)" (PDF). Journal of Arachnology 19 (1): 62–6.
- Hajer J, Reháková D (2003). "Spinning activity of the spider Trogloneta granulum (Araneae, Mysmenidae): web, cocoon, cocoon handling behaviour, draglines and attachment discs". Zoology (Jena) 106 (3): 223–31. doi:10.1078/0944-2006-00117. PMID 16351906.
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