Uloboridae

Uloboridae
Uloborus plumipes
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Infraorder: Araneomorphae
Family: Uloboridae
Thorell, 1869
Diversity
18 genera, 262 species

Uloboridae is a family of non-venomous spiders, known as cribellate orb weavers or hackled orb weavers. Their lack of venom glands is a secondarily evolved trait. Instead, they wrap their prey thoroughly in silk, cover it in regurgitated digestive enzymes and then ingest the liquified body.[1]

All members of this family produce a feathery, fuzzy silk called cribellate (or hackled) silk.[2] These spiders do not use an adhesive on their orb webs, but rather the very fine fibers on each strand of silk tend to ensnare prey. Uloboridae webs often have a stabilimentum or zig-zag pattern through the center.

Distribution

This family has an almost worldwide distribution. There are only two species known from northern Europe: Uloborus walckenaerius and Hyptiotes paradoxus. Similarly occurring solely in northern North America (e.g. southern Ontario) is Uloborus glomosus.

Genera

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.stri.si.edu/sites/publications/PDFs/2006_Weng_et_a_Can_JZool.pdf
  2. ↑ Jonathan A. Coddington & Herbert W. Levi (1991). "Systematics and evolution of spiders (Araneae)" (PDF). Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics. 22: 565–592. doi:10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.22.1.565. JSTOR 2097274.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 7/21/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.