Oonops Templeton

Platnick, Norman I. & Dupérré, Nadine, 2009, The Goblin Spider Genus Heteroonops (Araneae, Oonopidae), With Notes on Oonops, American Museum Novitates 3649, pp. 1-72 : 5

Oonops Templeton

Oonops Templeton, 1835: 404 (type species by monotypy Oonops pulcher Templeton ).

DIAGNOSIS: Our knowledge of soft-bodied oonopids is far too primitive, at this stage, to even guess what the actual limits of the type genus of the family may be. It is unlikely that even all the European species that have been assigned to the genus are actually congeneric with the type species; in particular, the synanthropic species Oonops domesticus Dalmas (1916) seems to have rather differently constructed genitalia and may be introduced into Europe from elsewhere. Because authors as recent as Chickering (1969) have expressed doubts about the separation of Heteroonops from Oonops , we present here a redescription of the type species of the latter genus. Both the elaborate embolus structure (figs. 33–40) and the bizarre opening on the endites of males (fig. 12, arrow), and the female genitalic conformation, with a bilobed posterior receptaculum (figs. 72–78), may help define the limits of the genus.