Tube-dwelling spider
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Tube-dwelling spiders (Segestriidae) are a family of araneomorph spiders first described by Eugène Simon in 1893.<ref name=Simo1893 /> It consists of five genera: two large and widespread, Segestria and Ariadna, and three smaller genera, Citharoceps, Gippsicola and Indoseges.<ref name="wsc" /> They are haplogyne spiders, related to the Dysderidae and placed in clade or superfamily Dysderoidea.
Distribution
Both Segestria and Ariadna live in North America, South America, Eurasia, Africa and New Zealand, though Ariadna also lives in Australia.<ref name=wsc />
Description
Members of this family are easily recognized because their first three pairs of legs are arranged forward instead of two and they have six eyes instead of eight, arranged in a semicircle.<ref name=Simo1893 /> The leg structure appears to be an adaptation for living in silken tubes. Unlike those of the atypical tarantulas, these tubes may branch and are often built in tree bark fissures, as well as under stones.
Genera
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male Ariadna corticola
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male Segestria bavarica
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- Ariadna Audouin, 1826 – Africa, Asia, Europe, North to South America, Australia, New Caledonia, New Zealand
- Citharoceps Chamberlin, 1924 – Mexico, United States
- Gippsicola Hogg, 1900 – Australia
- Indoseges Siliwal, Das, Choudhury & Giroti, 2021 – India
- Segestria Latreille, 1804 – Madagascar, Asia, Europe, North America, New Zealand, northern Africa. Introduced to St. Helena, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay
Fossil record
The oldest unambiguous members of the family are known from the Eocene Baltic amber.<ref name=Magalhaesetal2020 />
Cretaceous taxa Denticulsegestria, Jordansegestria, Jordariadna, Lebansegestria, Microsegestria, Myansegestria, Palaeosegestria and Parvosegestria, originally described as tube-dwelling spiders, might be members of the stem group of Segestriidae or stem dysderoids instead.<ref name=Magalhaesetal2020 />