Meotipa Simon, 1895

Deng, Zhongwei, Agnarsson, Ingi, Chen, Zhanqi & Liu, Jie, 2022, Meotipa species (Araneae, Theridiidae) from China, ZooKeys 1082, pp. 153-178 : 153

Genus Meotipa Simon, 1895

Diagnosis.

Female of Meotipa differs from all other theridiids by the conspicuous flattened black spines on the abdomen and/or legs. Therefore, they are often referred to as spiny theridiids. Meotipa males are significantly smaller than females. The male palp of Meotipa can be distinguished from other theridiids by the spoon-shaped conductor and embolus being thin and short, with the straight base, completely surrounded by the spoon-shaped conductor or the tip of embolus, which is opposite to the conductor (except Meotipa bituberculata , see Deeleman-Reinhold 2009: 419, figs 20-37). The species included in Meotipa are given below, with their distributions.