Heptathela kimurai, the Kimura spider, or kimura-gumo, is an Old World spider, found primarily in Japan and named after Arika Kimura, who collected it in 1920. It belongs to the sub-order Mesothelae and can reach up to 3 cm in length. Its burrows are covered by a camouflaged "pill box" flap.
The Mesothelae are a suborder of spiders that includes a single extant family, Liphistiidae, and a number of extinct families. This suborder is thought to form the sister group to all other living spiders, and to retain ancestral characters, such as a segmented abdomen with spinnerets in the middle and two pairs of book lungs. Members of Liphistiidae are medium to large spiders with eight eyes grouped on a tubercle. They are found only in China, Japan, and southeast Asia. The oldest known Mesothelae spiders are known from the Carboniferous, over 300 million years ago.
The spider family Liphistiidae, recognized by Tamerlan Thorell in 1869, when broadly circumscribed to include two subfamilies, comprises 8 genera and about 100 species of medium-sized spiders from Southeast Asia, China, and Japan. They are among the most basal living spiders, belonging to the suborder Mesothelae. In Japan, the Kimura spider is well known. In 2022, it was proposed to re-accept the subfamily Heptathelinae as the family Heptathelidae. As of December 2023, this proposal was accepted by the World Spider Catalog. In this circumscription, the family Liphistiidae has only one genus, Liphistius.
Ground spiders comprise Gnaphosidae, the seventh largest spider family with over 2,000 described species in over 100 genera distributed worldwide. There are 105 species known to central Europe, and common genera include Gnaphosa, Drassodes, Micaria, Cesonia, Zelotes and many others. They are closely related to Clubionidae. At present, no ground spiders are known to be seriously venomous to humans.
Heptathela is a genus of spiders that includes the Kimura spider. They are trapdoor spiders of the family Heptathelidae and are found in Japan, including Okinawa and the Ryukyu Islands. Spiders of this genus lack venom glands.
Macrothele is a genus of mygalomorph spiders in the family Macrothelidae, and was first described by A. Ausserer in 1871. Most species occur in Asia, from India to Japan, and Java, with five found in Africa, and two in Europe. The name is derived from Ancient Greek μακρός ("makro-"), meaning "big", and θηλή ("thele"), referring to the spinnerets.
Songthela is a spider genus in the family Heptathelidae, with species found in China and Vietnam.
Ryuthela tanikawai is a species of spider in the family Liphistiidae.
Ryuthela nishihirai is a species of spider in the family Liphistiidae. They thrive on the Japanese islands of Okinawa.
Lasaeola is a genus of comb-footed spiders that was first described by Eugène Louis Simon in 1881. The type species was described under the name Pachydactylus pronus, but was renamed Lasaeola prona when it was discovered that the name "Pachydactylus" was preoccupied. Both this genus and Deliana were removed from the synonymy of Dipoena in 1988, but many of these species require more study before their placement is certain.
Latouchia is a genus of Asian mygalomorph spiders in the family Halonoproctidae, first described by Reginald Innes Pocock in 1901. Originally placed with the Ctenizidae, it was moved to the Halonoproctidae in 2018.
Humua is a genus of corinnid sac spiders containing the single species, Humua takeuchii. It was first described by H. Ono in 1987, and is only found in Japan's Ryukyu Islands.
Qiongthela is a genus of spiders in the family Heptathelidae. As of 2021, it contains 14 species.
Vinathela is a genus of spiders in the family Heptathelidae. It was first described in 2000 by Ono. As of 2017, it contains 7 species. Two species were formerly placed in the genus Nanthela, now submerged into Vinathela.
Sinopesa is a genus of spiders in the family Nemesiidae. It is found in China and on Ryukyu Islands in Japan. It was first described in 1995 by Raven & Schwendinger. As of 2023, it contains 8 Asian species.
The tachibana orange is a variety of mandarin orange, a citrus fruit. They grow wild in the forests of Japan and are referred to in the poetry of the early Japanese and Ryukyu Islands kingdoms. The Tanaka System assigns them their own species, while the Swingle System places them in the same species with other mandarin oranges.
Oilinyphia is a genus of Asian dwarf spiders that was first described by H. Ono & H. Saito in 1989.
Citrus ryukyuensis, also known as the tanibuta, is a newly characterized wild citrus species native to the Ryukyus and adjacent islands, most closely related to the mainland mandarin orange, C. reticulata. As with other citrus, it is a member of the Rutaceae family. The Ryukyu and mainland species have diverged for more than 2 million years, and unlike the mainland mandarin, the Ryukyu mandarin reproduces sexually. Its hybridization with the mainland species has given rise to the unique mandarin hybrids of the islands.
Heptathelidae is a family of spiders. It was formerly sunk within the family Liphistiidae, but as of December 2023 was accepted by the World Spider Catalog.
