Hahniidae Bertkau, 1878

Hahniidae Bertkau 1878: 393 (type genus Hahnia C.L. Koch, 1841).

Diagnosis

Members of Hahniidae resemble other entelegyne spiders of the RTA clade by having entelegyne genitalia and a retrolateral tibial apophysis in the male palp, but (except for Cybaeolus) differ by having the anterior lateral spinnerets well separated, with the posterior medians advanced in-between them, and the posterior laterals well separated, behind the anterior laterals or, most usually, at their sides, so that all the spinnerets are arranged in a row (Figs 7–10). Additionally, they, including Cybaeolus, can be recognized by the male palp with retrolateral tibial apophysis that has a canal, usually curved upwards and with an acute tip bearing regular teeth, a retrolateral patellar apophysis (absent in Amaloxenops Schiapelli and Gerschman, 1958 and Antistea Simon, 1898), and the simple copulatory bulb with the thin embolus circling clockwise (left palp, ventral view), without conductor, and sometimes with a lightly sclerotized median apophysis as a simple lobe (Figs 15, 16). Cybaeolus has grouped spinnerets (Figs 3–6), but the male genitalia have the mentioned diagnostic characters; Amaloxenops and Antistea lack the patellar apophysis, but the tibial apophysis and the spinnerets are typical of the family.

Note

The family Hahniidae traditionally listed only representatives with spinnerets in the characteristic arrangement of a transverse line, until Lehtinen (1967) expanded the family limits to include Cybaeolus, with grouped spinnerets, plus several genera now placed in Cybaeidae and Cicurinidae (see: Wheeler et al. 2017, Castellucci et al. 2023, Gorneau et al. 2023). Some hahniids have the posterior lateral spinnerets behind the anterior laterals (e.g. Lizarba Roth, 1967, Paramito Dupérré and Tapia, 2024), others slightly behind and at the sides (e.g. Austrohahnia Mello-Leitão, 1942), and in many the posterior laterals are more at the side of the anterior laterals; this variation forms a continuum. The above diagnosis is provided to reflect those changes.