Macrothele

Macrothele is a genus of mygalomorph spiders in the family Macrothelidae, and was first described by A. Ausserer in 1871.[3] It is the only genus in the family Macrothelidae, and most species occur in Asia, from India to Japan, and Java, with four found in Africa, and two in Europe.[1] The name is derived from Ancient Greek μακρός ("makro-"), meaning "big", and θηλή ("thele"), referring to the spinnerets.

Macrothele
Threatening female M. gigas
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Infraorder: Mygalomorphae
Family: Macrothelidae
Genus: Macrothele
Ausserer, 1871[1]
Type species
M. calpeiana
(Walckenaer, 1805)
Species

31, see text

Synonyms[1]
  • Orientothele Mirza, Sanap & Kunte, 2017[2]

Description
Nest of M. gigas

Spiders of this genus are fairly large, with females of some Chinese species ranging from 1 to 3 centimetres (0.4 to 1.2 in) in body length. Males are smaller, sometimes only half that length.[4] Macrothelids can be distinguished from other mygalomorph spiders by their larger posterior sigillae on the sternum, and the arrangement of the rows of teeth on the margin of the chelicerae: larger front-facing margin and smaller rear-facing.[5]

These spiders build tube-webs or funnel-webs under rocks or logs, or in crevices in the ground.[4]

Taxonomy

The genus Macrothele was erected by Anton Ausserer in 1871, with the type species being Macrothele calpeiana, formerly Mygale calpeiana.[1] Ausserer placed the genus in the then very broadly defined family Theraphosidae. It was later placed in the Dipluridae and the Hexathelidae before being transferred to the Macrothelidae in 2018.[1] A molecular phylogenetic study in 2018 suggested that Macrothele was a distinct, early diverging lineage within the Mygalomorphae. Accordingly, Simon's subfamily Macrothelinae was elevated to the family Macrothelidae. There is some doubt if the western and eastern species should be grouped in the same genus.[6]

The following cladogram shows the possible relationship of Macrothele to related taxa:[5]

 
 

Dipluridae

 
 
 

Hexathelidae

 
 
 

Porrhothelidae

 
 
 

Macrothele (Macrothelidae)

 
 
 
 

Calisoga (Nemesiidae)

 
 

Hebestatis (Halonoproctidae)

 
 
 
 

Atracidae

 
 

Actinopodidae

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Species
Female M. yaginumai

As of May 2019, it contains 31 species and one subspecies from the western Mediterranean and West Africa to Southeast Asia, mainland China, and Taiwan:[1]

  • Macrothele abrupta Benoit, 1965 – Congo
  • Macrothele alyrata (Mirza, Sanap & Kunte, 2017) – India
  • Macrothele amamiensis Shimojana & Haupt, 1998 – Japan (Ryukyu Is.)
  • Macrothele bannaensis Xu & Yin, 2001 – China, Laos
  • Macrothele calpeiana (Walckenaer, 1805) (type) – Spain, Italy, North Africa
  • Macrothele camerunensis Simon, 1903 – Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea
  • Macrothele cangshanensis Z. B. Yang, Zhao, Zhang & Z. Z. Yang, 2018 – China
  • Macrothele cretica Kulczyński, 1903 – Greece (Crete)
  • Macrothele decemnotata Simon, 1909 – Vietnam
  • Macrothele drolshageni Özkütük, Elverici, Yağmur & Kunt, 2019 – Turkey
  • Macrothele gigas Shimojana & Haupt, 1998 – Japan (Ryukyu Is.), Taiwan
  • Macrothele guizhouensis Hu & Li, 1986 – China
  • Macrothele holsti Pocock, 1901 – Taiwan
  • Macrothele hunanica Zhu & Song, 2000 – China
  • Macrothele incisa Benoit, 1965 – Congo
  • Macrothele jinlin Z. B. Yang, Zhao, Zhang & Z. Z. Yang, 2018 – China
  • Macrothele maculata (Thorell, 1890) – Myanmar, Indonesia (Sumatra, Java)
    • M. m. annamensis Hogg, 1922 – Vietnam
  • Macrothele menglunensis Li & Zha, 2013 – China
  • Macrothele monocirculata Xu & Yin, 2000 – China
  • Macrothele palpator Pocock, 1901 – China, Hong Kong
  • Macrothele proserpina Simon, 1909 – Vietnam
  • Macrothele raveni Zhu, Li & Song, 2000 – China
  • Macrothele segmentata Simon, 1892 – Malaysia
  • Macrothele simplicata (Saito, 1933) – Taiwan
  • Macrothele taiwanensis Shimojana & Haupt, 1998 – Taiwan
  • Macrothele triangularis Benoit, 1965 – Congo
  • Macrothele variabiis Pavesi, 1898 – Indonesia (Java)
  • Macrothele vidua Simon, 1906 – India
  • Macrothele yaginumai Shimojana & Haupt, 1998 – Japan (Ryukyu Is.)
  • Macrothele yani Xu, Yin & Griswold, 2002 – China
  • Macrothele yunnanica Zhu & Song, 2000 – China

See also

References
  1. "Gen. Macrothele Ausserer, 1871". World Spider Catalog Version 20.0. Natural History Museum Bern. 2019. doi:10.24436/2. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
  2. Drolshagen, B. (2017). "Orientothele Mirza, Sanap & Kunte, 2017 is a junior synonym of Macrothele Ausserer, 1871 (Araneae: Hexathelidae)". Arachnology. 17 (6): 282. doi:10.13156/arac.2017.17.6.282.
  3. Ausserer, A. (1871). "Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Arachniden-Familie der Territelariae Thorell (Mygalidae Autor)". Verhandlungen der Kaiserlich-Königlichen Zoologisch-Botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien. 21: 117–224.
  4. Zhu, M.S. & Song, D.X. (2000). "Review of the Chinese funnel-web spiders of the genus Macrothele, with descriptions of two new species (Araneae:Hexathelidae)" (PDF). The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 48 (1): 59–64. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-02-05. Retrieved 2018-05-20 (with key to Chinese species)
  5. Hedin, M.; Derkarabetian, S.; Ramírez, M.J.; Vink, C. & Bond, J.E. (2018). "Phylogenomic reclassification of the world's most venomous spiders (Mygalomorphae, Atracinae), with implications for venom evolution". Scientific Reports. 8 (1636): 1–7. doi:10.1038/s41598-018-19946-2. PMC 5785998. PMID 29374214.
  6. Murphy, Frances & Murphy, John (2000). An Introduction to the Spiders of South East Asia. Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Nature Society.
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