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Meshweavers and Allies - Superfamily: Dictynoidea
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After much taxonomic wrangling, four families is all that remains of the Superfamily: Dictynoidea and still, there is no concensus on whether or not this superfamily is a monophyletic group. Over the past 14 years or so, various people have argued for the removal of this superfamily and placing the families within it elsewhere. So far this does not seem to be supported universally and iNaturalist still maintains the Dictynoidea as a superfamily. Combined, the four families consist of 112 genera and a total of 1210 species as of November, 2023.
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The species in this group range in size from minute to medium-sized. They often have elaborate patterns everywhere but colouring could be described as rather 'earthy' with lots of ochres, browns, greys and blacks. Many live on or close to the ground, some hunt for their prey, whereas others build delicate little webs so small they are hard to spot. Still others are aquatic, spending time either in or, literally, on the water.
So, despite being treated as one superfamily, it is indeed hard to see what binds them as a group. |
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Of the four families, species of three have been recorded in Australia although only one family, the Toxopidae or, Intertidal Spiders, can be considered a common occurrence in the Northern Rivers. The Family: Hahnidae however, due to the small size of its' species, could be much more common than generally believed.
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References and links:
> Coddington, J.A., (2005). 'Phylogeny and classification of spiders.' (PDF), in Ubick, D., Paquin, P., Cushing, P.E. and Roth, V., (eds.), 'Spiders of North America: an identification manual.' American Arachnological Society, pp. 18–24,
> Wheeler, W.C. et al, (2017). 'The spider tree of life: phylogeny of Araneae based on target-gene analyses from an extensive taxon sampling.' Cladistics. 33 (6): 609. doi:10.1111/cla.12182. S2CID 35535038
https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/taxa/367162-Dictynoidea
> Coddington, J.A., (2005). 'Phylogeny and classification of spiders.' (PDF), in Ubick, D., Paquin, P., Cushing, P.E. and Roth, V., (eds.), 'Spiders of North America: an identification manual.' American Arachnological Society, pp. 18–24,
> Wheeler, W.C. et al, (2017). 'The spider tree of life: phylogeny of Araneae based on target-gene analyses from an extensive taxon sampling.' Cladistics. 33 (6): 609. doi:10.1111/cla.12182. S2CID 35535038
https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/taxa/367162-Dictynoidea
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