The Mygalomorphae, or mygalomorphs, are an infraorder of spiders, and comprise one of three major groups of living spiders with over 3,000 species, found on all continents except Antarctica. Many members are known as trapdoor spiders due to their creation of trapdoors over their burrows. Other prominent groups include Australian funnel web spiders and tarantulas, with the latter accounting for around one third of all mygalomorphs.
Atracidae is a family of mygalomorph spiders, commonly known as Australian funnel-web spiders or atracids. It has been included as a subfamily of the Hexathelidae, but is now recognised as a separate family. All members of the family are native to Australia. Atracidae consists of three genera: Atrax, Hadronyche, and Illawarra, comprising 35 species. Some members of the family produce venom that is dangerous to humans, and bites by spiders of six of the species have caused severe injuries to victims. The bites of the Sydney funnel-web spider and northern tree-dwelling funnel-web spider are potentially deadly, but no fatalities have occurred since the introduction of modern first-aid techniques and antivenom.
Funnel-web spider refers to many different species of spider, particularly those that spin a web in the shape of a funnel:
The Mesothelae are a suborder of spiders. As of April 2024, two extant families were accepted by the World Spider Catalog, Liphistiidae and Heptathelidae. Alternatively, the Heptathelidae can be treated as a subfamily of a more broadly circumscribed Liphistiidae. There are also a number of extinct families.
Hexathelidae is a family of mygalomorph spiders. It is one of a number of families and genera of spiders known as tunnelweb or funnel-web spiders. In 2018, the family was substantially reduced in size by genera being moved to three separate families: Atracidae, Macrothelidae and Porrhothelidae.
Tord Tamerlan Teodor Thorell was a Swedish arachnologist.
Norman Ira Platnick was an American biological systematist and arachnologist. At the time of his death, he was a professor emeritus of the Richard Gilder Graduate School and Peter J. Solomon Family Curator Emeritus of the invertebrate zoology department of the American Museum of Natural History. A 1973 Ph.D. recipient at Harvard University, Platnick described over 1,800 species of spiders from around the world, making him the second most prolific spider taxonomist in history, behind only Eugène Simon. Until 2014 he was also the maintainer of the World Spider Catalog, a website formerly hosted by the AMNH which tracks the arachnology literature, and attempts to maintain a comprehensive list, sorted taxonomically, of every species of spider which has been formally described. In 2007 he received the International Society of Arachnology's Bonnet award, named for Pierre Bonnet, in recognition of his work on the catalog.
Microstigmatidae is a small family of spiders with about 38 described species in eleven genera. They are small ground-dwelling and free-living spiders that make little use of silk.
Nemesiidae is a family of mygalomorph spiders first described by Eugène Simon in 1889, and raised to family status in 1985. Before becoming its own family, it was considered part of "Dipluridae". The family is sometimes referred to as wishbone spiders due to the shape of their burrows.
Antrodiaetidae, also known as folding trapdoor spiders or folding-door spiders, is a small spider family related to atypical tarantulas. They are found almost exclusively in the western and midwestern United States, from California to Washington and east to the Appalachian Mountains. Exceptions include Antrodiaetus roretzi and Antrodiaetus yesoensis, which are endemic to Japan and are considered relict species. It is likely that two separate vicariance events led to the evolution of these two species.
Atypoidea is a clade of mygalomorph spiders, one of the two main groups into which the mygalomorphs are divided. It has been treated at the rank of superfamily. It contains five families of spiders:
Sphodros is a genus of North American purseweb spiders first described by Charles Athanase Walckenaer in 1835. It was considered a synonym of Atypus until 1980.
Tarantulas comprise a group of large and often hairy spiders of the family Theraphosidae. As of December 2023, 1,100 species have been identified, with 166 genera. The term "tarantula" is usually used to describe members of the family Theraphosidae, although many other members of the same infraorder (Mygalomorphae) are commonly referred to as "tarantulas" or "false tarantulas". Some of the more common species have become popular in the exotic pet trade. Many New World species kept as pets have setae known as urticating hairs that can cause irritation to the skin, and in extreme cases, cause damage to the eyes.
Coneweb spiders (Diguetidae) are six-eyed haplogyne spiders that live in tangled space webs, fashioning a cone-like central retreat where they hide and lay eggs. It is a small family, containing only two genera split between a range in the Southwestern United States and Mexico and a range in South America. Members of the genus Diguetia usually build their webs in shrubs or between cactus pads. They have the same eye arrangement as the venomous recluse spiders.
Atypoides is a genus of North American folding trapdoor spiders. It was first described by Octavius Pickard-Cambridge in 1883, and it has only been found in United States. It was synonymized with the genus Antrodiaetus in 2007, but was restored to its former independent status in 2019. As of November 2021, it contains only three species: A. gertschi, A. hadros, and A. riversi.
Antônio Domingos Brescovit is a Brazilian arachnologist. His first name, Antônio, may also be spelled António. He develops academic activities at the 'arthropodae laboratorium' at the Butantan Institute, and he is a specialist in Neotropical Arachnida.
Eucteniza is a genus of trapdoor spiders in the family Euctenizidae containing at least 14 species occurring in Mexico and the southern United States. Species are distinguished by a softened rear portion of the carapace, and males possess large spines on the first two pairs of walking legs that are used to hold females during mating. Like other trapdoor spiders they create burrows with a hinged lid, from which they await passing insects and other arthropods to prey upon. Many species are known from only one or two localities, or from only male specimens. More species are expected to be discovered. Eucteniza is closely related to spiders of the genera Entychides and Neoapachella.
Mastophora, also known as bolas spiders, is a genus of orb-weaver spiders first described by E. L. Holmberg in 1876. They can be identified by a pair of lumps on the dorsal surface of the opisthosoma, though not all males will have these lumps.
Stenoterommata is a genus of South American araneomorph spiders in the family Pycnothelidae. It was first described by E. L. Holmberg in 1881. Originally placed with the Ctenizidae, it was transferred to the funnel-web trapdoor spiders in 1985, then to the Pycnothelidae in 2020. It is a senior synonym of Ctenochelus.
Mecicobothrium is a genus of dwarf tarantulas first described by Eduardo Ladislao Holmberg in 1882.
