Wolf spiders are members of the family Lycosidae, from the Ancient Greek word "λύκος" meaning "wolf". They are robust and agile hunters with excellent eyesight. They live mostly in solitude and hunt alone, and do not spin webs. Some are opportunistic hunters pouncing upon prey as they find it or even chasing it over short distances. Some wait for passing prey in or near the mouth of a burrow.
Desidae is a family of spiders, some of which are known as intertidal spiders. The family is named for the genus Desis, members of which live in a very unusual location — between the tides. The family has been reevaluated in recent years and now includes inland genera and species as well, such as Badumna and Phryganoporus. In 2017, the family Amphinectidae was merged into Desidae. The family Toxopidae has been separated off. Those intertidal spiders that are truly marine commonly live in barnacle shells, which they seal up with silk; this allows them to maintain an air bubble during high tide. They emerge at night to feed on various small arthropods that live in the intertidal zone.
Crevice weaver spiders (Filistatidae) comprise cribellate spiders with features that have been regarded as "primitive" for araneomorph spiders. They are weavers of funnel or tube webs. The family contains 18 genera and more than 120 described species worldwide.
Titanoecidae is a family of araneomorph spiders first described by Pekka T. Lehtinen in 1967. It is fairly widespread in the New World and Eurasia with five genera and more than 50 species worldwide. These are mostly dark-colored builders of "woolly" (cribellate) silk webs. Several species are found at relatively high altitudes in mountain ranges and may be very common in such habitats.
Misionella is a genus of South American crevice weavers that was first described by M. J. Ramírez & C. J. Grismado in 1997. In 2005 a spider fossil found in 15- to 20-million-year-old Miocene amber from the Dominican Republic was described as Misionella didicostae. A second specimen was discussed soon thereafter.
Dictynidae is a family of cribellate, hackled band-producing spiders first described by Octavius Pickard-Cambridge in 1871. Most build irregular webs on or near the ground, creating a tangle of silken fibers among several branches or stems of one plant.
Austrochilidae is a small spider family with ten species in three genera. Austrochilus and Thaida are endemic to the Andean forests of central and southern Chile and adjacent Argentina, while Hickmania is endemic to Tasmania. The monophyly of the family and the relationships among the genera are uncertain as of May 2017.
Tetrablemmidae, sometimes called armored spiders, is a family of tropical araneomorph spiders first described by Octavius Pickard-Cambridge in 1873. It contains 126 described species in 29 genera from southeast Asia, with a few that occur in Africa and Central and South America. Pacullidae was incorporated into this family in 1981, but was later restored as a separate family in a 2016 phylogenetic study.
Phyxelididae is a family of araneomorph spiders first described by Pekka T. Lehtinen in 1967 as a subfamily of Amaurobiidae, and later elevated to family status as a sister group of Titanoecidae.
Synaphridae is a family of spiders with thirteen described species in three genera. It was first described as a subfamily of Anapidae, but it has since been raised to family status.
Kukulcania is a genus of crevice weavers that was first described by Pekka T. Lehtinen in 1967. It is named after Kukulkan, a Mesoamerican serpent deity.
Tetrablemma is a widespread genus of armored spiders first described by Octavius Pickard-Cambridge in 1873. It only has four eyes; an unusual trait for spiders, found only here and in some species of Caponiidae, though the two are not closely related. The eyes are large, but unequal in size, closely grouped around the center of the prosoma that rises in a somewhat of a cone shape from the abdomen. They have four closely positioned spinnerets enclosed in a corneous casing.
Viridasiidae is a family of araneomorph spiders split from the family Ctenidae in 2015.
Zorodictyna is a genus of spiders in the family Udubidae native to Madagascar. It has been described as an intermediate genus between Zoropsidae and Dictynidae, though it is now placed in Udubidae. This genus was originally placed in the family Zoropsidae, but it has been reassigned several times since. In 1967, Lehtinen moved it to Miturgidae. In 1999, it was moved back to Zoropsidae, and in 2015, it was moved to Udubidae.
Zorodictyna inhonesta is a species of spider in the family Udubidae, found in Madagascar. It was first described by Eugène Simon in 1906 as Uduba inhonesta. Pekka T. Lehtinen transferred it to the genus Zorodictyna in 1967, although Pierre L.G. Benoit was still using the name Uduba inhonesta in 1972.
Viridasius is a monotypic genus of East African araneomorph spiders in the Viridasiidae family, containing the single species, Viridasius fasciatus. It was first described by Eugène Simon in 1889, and has only been found in Madagascar.
Megadictynidae is a family of araneomorph spiders first described by Pekka T. Lehtinen in 1967. They are endemic to New Zealand.
