Mysmenidae Petrunkevitch, 1928

Lin, Yucheng & Li, Shuqiang, 2013, Five new minute orb-weaving spiders of the family Mysmenidae from China (Araneae), Zootaxa 3670 (4), pp. 449-481 : 450

Family Mysmenidae Petrunkevitch, 1928

Diagnosis. Males with a metatarsal clasping spine on the metatarsus or tibia I (or both) ( Platnick & Shadab 1978; Baert 1984; Griswold et al. 1998); a flat, rounded paracymbium (hook-shaped in Mysmenopsis ) ( Lopardo et al. 2011); pedipalpal cymbium oriented ventrally or retrolateral-ventrally in males (retrolateral-dorsal or fully prolateral in a few mysmenid taxa) and distinctly modified prolaterally and ⁄or apically into an internal cymbial conductor (absent in Mysmenopsis ); cymbial fold (absent in Maymena mayana and Mysmenopsis ); and conductor globose, like a voluminous membrane, lacking a groove for the embolus tip; females with a distinct sclerotized spot or a process on the apical ventral surface of at least femur I (absent in some species of Mysmenopsis ); an epigynal median plate projecting from the epigastric furrow; and either a more-or-less straight trajectory or convoluted trajectory of the copulatory ducts ( Snazell 1986; Schütt 2003; Lopardo et al. 2011).

Distribution. Algeria, Angola, Bahama Is., Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Canary Is., China, Colombia, Peru, Comoro Is., Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Europe, Fiji, Galapagos Is., Guyana, Hawaii, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Madeira, Mexico, Nepal, New Caledonia, New Guinea, Niue, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Rwanda, Samoa, Seychelles, South Africa, Sri Lanka, St. Helena, St. Vincent, Sulawesi, Tasmania, Trinidad, USA, Venezuela.