Malkaridae

Pitted shield spiders
Malkara sp.
Whakamoke paoka in New Zealand
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Infraorder:	Araneomorphae
Family:	Malkaridae Davies, 1980
Diversity
13 genera, 57 species
blue: reported countries (WSC)

Malkaridae is a small family of araneomorph spiders first described by Valerie Todd Davies in 1980. ^[1] In 2017, the family Pararchaeidae was brought into synonymy with Malkaridae. ^[2]

Genera

As of January 2026 ^[update] , this family includes thirteen genera and 57 species: ^[2]

• Anarchaea Rix, 2006 – Australia
• Carathea Moran, 1986 – Australia
• Chilenodes Platnick & Forster, 1987 – Argentina, Chile
• Flavarchaea Rix, 2006 – Australia, New Caledonia
• Forstrarchaea Rix, 2006 – New Zealand
• Malkara Davies, 1980 – Australia
• Nanarchaea Rix, 2006 – Australia
• Ozarchaea Rix, 2006 – Australia, New Zealand
• Pararchaea Forster, 1955 – New Zealand
• Perissopmeros Butler, 1932 – Australia
• Tingotingo Hormiga & Scharff, 2020 – New Zealand
• Westrarchaea Rix, 2006 – Australia
• Whakamoke Hormiga & Scharff, 2020 – New Zealand

References

1. Davies, V. T. (1980). "Malkara loricata, a new spider (Araneidae: Malkarinae) from Australia". Proceedings, 8. Internationaler Arachnologen-Kongress Wien 1980. pp. 377–382.
2. "Family Malkaridae Davies, 1980". World Spider Catalog. doi:10.24436/2 . Retrieved 2026-01-16.

• Platnick, N.I & Forster, R.R (1987). On the first American spiders of the subfamily Sternodinae (Araneae, Malkaridae). American Museum Novitates 2894. PDF 5Mb (Abstract) (Chilenodes)

External links

• Citizen science observations for Malkaridae at iNaturalist