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Taxonomy
Caponiidae Simon, 1890
EOL Text
The spider family Caponiidae (bright lungless spiders), the members of which are found mainly in the Americas and southern Africa, includes 86 described species (Platnick 2013), with only around eight to ten species recorded from North America north of Mexico.
Caponiids are morphologically unusual in a number of ways. They differ from other spiders in lacking book lungs and having the posterior median spinnerets anteriorly displaced to form a transverse row with the anterior lateral spinnerets. Most species have only two eyes (although the ancestral state for the group is to have eight eyes) and, unlike other spiders showing eye loss, they retain the anterior median eyes.
Caponiids are wandering hunters, typically found on the ground, under rocks, and in leaf litter. Some species are known only from Neotoma woodrat nests. Most of the Nearctic species live in arid deserts or desert scrub (Orthonops and Tarsonops), whereas others (the single species of Calponia, some Orthonops) occur in habitats ranging from oak savanna to closed canopy forests. Caponiids are believed to favor other spiders as food, although at least in the lab their diet is not restricted to spiders.
Calponia harrisonfordi was described (from California, where it is endemic to the central California Coast Ranges) only in 1993 (Platnick 1993). Spiders of this species (which was named in honor of the American film actor Harrison Ford, a generous supporter of the American Museum of Natural History) have eight eyes. Orthonops was revised by Platnick in 1995.
(Ubick 2005; Bradley 2013)
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Rights holder/Author | Leo Shapiro, Leo Shapiro |
Source | No source database. |
Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) Stats
Specimen Records:67
Specimens with Sequences:7
Specimens with Barcodes:7
Species:5
Species With Barcodes:1
Public Records:1
Public Species:0
Public BINs:1
Spiders of the ecribellate haplogyne family Caponiidae are unusual in that most species have only two eyes, which is unheard of in other spiders. Other species have four, six or eight eyes. Even in a single species, sometimes the number of eyes changes from spiderling to adult.
Contents
Description[edit]
These spiders of about 2 to 5mm are rarely noticed, but generally look like somewhat faded woodlouse hunter spiders in the genus Dysdera. The carapace (cephalothorax or prosoma) is orange and the abdomen (opisthosoma) light gray. The two-eyed species have their two eyes in the anterior middle of the carapace.
Eye numbers[edit]
- Eight eyes: Calponia, Caponia
- Six eyes: Caponina (but may also have two, three, four or five eyes), Iraponia
- Four eyes: Nopsides, Notnops
- Two eyes: Nops, Orthonops, Diplogena, Taintnops, Tisentnops, Cubanops, Nyetnops, Laoponia
Habits[edit]
Their habits are for the most part unknown. At least some species are known to hunt other spiders.
Relationships[edit]
The fact that they are ecribellate and haplogyne indicates that they are probably relatively primitive. Calponia harrisonfordi from California seems to be the most primitive member of the family. Their phylogenetic relationships have long been enigmatic, but in the early 1990s it was determined that they are probably a sister group of the Tetrablemmidae plus the four families inside the Dysderoidea superfamily.
The subfamily Nopinae consists at least of the genera Nops, Nopsides, Orthonops and Tarsonops. The remaining genera are unlikely to form a monophyletic group.
Distribution[edit]
The family can be found in Africa and America from Argentina to the USA.
Names[edit]
Calponia is a contraction of Californian Caponia, because the single species Calponia harrisonfordi has, like the African genus Caponia eight eyes. The species name is in honor of Harrison Ford, recognizing his efforts on behalf of the American Museum of Natural History.
The Chilean caponiid fauna differs from that of the rest of the Neotropics in lacking members of the Nopinae (named after the genus Nops). Three genera newly described by Norman I. Platnick in 1994 were thus named Notnops, Taintnops and Tisentnops, emphasizing this fact. The only Taintnops species, T. goloboffi, is named in honor of one of the collectors, P.A. Goloboff.
Genera[edit]
- Calponia Platnick, 1993 (USA)
- Caponia Simon, 1887 (Africa)
- Caponina Simon, 1891 (Central and South America)
- Cubanops Sánchez-Ruiz, Platnick and Dupérré, 2010 (Bahama Islands, Cuba and Hispaniola)
- Diploglena Purcell, 1904 (South Africa)
- Iraponia Kranz-Baltensperger, Platnick and Dupérré, 2009 (Iran)
- Laoponia Platnick and Jäger, 2008 (Laos and Vietnam)
- Nops Macleay, 1839 (West Indies, Central and South America)
- Nopsides Chamberlin, 1924 (Mexico)
- Notnops Platnick, 1994 (Chile)
- Nyetnops Platnick and Lise, 2007 (Brazil)
- Orthonops Chamberlin, 1924 (USA, Mexico)
- Taintnops Platnick, 1994 (Chile)
- Tarsonops Chamberlin, 1924 (Mexico)
- Tisentnops Platnick, 1994 (Chile)
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- Kranz-Baltensperger, Y., N. Platnick & N. Dupérré (2009). A new genus of the spider family Caponiidae (Araneae, Haplogynae) from Iran. American Museum Novitates, 3656 :1-12. [1]
- Platnick, N.I. (1993) A New Genus of the Spider Family Caponiidae (Araneae, Haplogynae) from California. American Museum Novitates 3063. PDF (Calponia)
- Platnick, N.I. (1994). A Revision of the Spider Genus Caponina (Araneae, Caponiidae). American Museum Novitates 3100.
- Platnick, N.I. (1994). A Review of the Chilean Spiders of the Family Caponiidae (Araneae, Haplogynae). American Museum Novitates 3113. PDF
- Platnick, N.I. (1995). A revision of the spider genus Orthonops (Araneae, Caponiidae). American Museum novitates 3150. PDF (five new species)
- Platnick, N.I. & P. Jager (2008). On the first Asian spiders of the family Caponiidae (Araneae, Haplogynae), with notes on the African genus Diploglena. American Museum Novitates, 3634: 1-12. [2]
- Platnick, N.I. & A. Lise (2007). On Nyetnops, a new genus of the spider subfamily Nopinae (Araneae, Caponiidae) from Brazil. American Museum Novitates, 3595:1-9. [3]
- Sánchez-Ruiz, A., N.I. Platnick, and N. Dupérré (2010). A new genus of the spider family Caponiidae (Araneae, Haplogynae) from the West Indies. American Museum Novitates 3705: 1–44. [4]
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Wikipedia |
Source | http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Caponiidae&oldid=649533235 |
Spiders of the ecribellate haplogyne family Caponiidae are unusual in that most species have only two eyes, which is unheard of in other spiders. Other species have four, six or eight eyes. Even in a single species, sometimes the number of eyes changes from spiderling to adult.
Contents |
Description
These spiders of about 2 to 5mm are rarely noticed, but generally look like somewhat faded woodlouse hunter spiders in the genus Dysdera. The carapace (cephalothorax or prosoma) is orange and the abdomen (opisthosoma) light gray. The two-eyed species have their two eyes in the anterior middle of the carapace.
Eye numbers
- Eight eyes: Calponia, Caponia
- Six eyes: Caponina (but may also have two, three, four or five eyes)
- Four eyes: Nopsides, Notnops
- Two eyes: Nops, Orthonops, Diplogena, Taintnops, Tisentnops
Habits
Their habits are for the most part unknown. At least some species are known to hunt other spiders.
Relationships
The fact that they are ecribellate and haplogyne indicates that they are probably relatively primitive. Calponia harrisonfordi from California seems to be the most primitive member of the family. Their phylogenetic relationships have long been enigmatic, but in the early 1990s it was determined that they are probably a sister group of the Tetrablemmidae plus the four families inside the Dysderoidea superfamily.
The subfamily Nopinae consists at least of the genera Nops, Nopsides, Orthonops and Tarsonops. The remaining genera are unlikely to form a monophyletic group.
Distribution
The family can be found in Africa and America from Argentina to the USA.
Names
Calponia is a contraction of Californian Caponia, because the single species Calponia harrisonfordi has, like the African genus Caponia eight eyes. The species name is in honor of Harrison Ford, recognizing his efforts on behalf of the American Museum.
The Chilean caponiid fauna differs from that of the rest of the Neotropics in lacking members of the Nopinae (named after the genus Nops). Three genera newly described by Norman I. Platnick in 1994 were thus named Notnops, Taintnops and Tisentnops, emphasizing this fact. The only Taintnops species, T. goloboffi, is named in honor of one of the collectors, P.A. Goloboff.
Genera
- Calponia Platnick, 1993 (USA)
- Caponia Simon, 1887 (Africa)
- Caponina Simon, 1891 (Central and South America)
- Diploglena Purcell, 1904 (South Africa)
- Nops Macleay, 1839 (Caribic, Central and South America)
- Nopsides Chamberlin, 1924 (Mexico)
- Notnops Platnick, 1994 (Chile)
- Orthonops Chamberlin, 1924 (USA, Mexico)
- Taintnops Platnick, 1994 (Chile)
- Tarsonops Chamberlin, 1924 (Mexico)
- Tisentnops Platnick, 1994 (Chile)
See also
References
- Platnick, N.I. (1993) A New Genus of the Spider Family Caponiidae (Araneae, Haplogynae) from California. American Museum Novitates 3063. PDF (Calponia)
- Platnick, N.I. (1994). A Revision of the Spider Genus Caponina (Araneae, Caponiidae). American Museum Novitates 3100.
- Platnick, N.I. (1994). A Review of the Chilean Spiders of the Family Caponiidae (Araneae, Haplogynae). American Museum Novitates 3113. PDF
- Platnick, N.I. (1995). A revision of the spider genus Orthonops (Araneae, Caponiidae). American Museum novitates 3150. PDF (five new species)
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Wikipedia |
Source | http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Caponiidae&oldid=504334923 |