Cheiracanthiidae, Wagner, 1887

Breitling, Rainer, 2021, A completely resolved phylogenetic tree of British spiders (Arachnida: Araneae), Ecologica Montenegrina 46, pp. 1-51 : 8

Cheiracanthiidae

Relationships within this small group remain obscure. Wolf (1991) discusses Cheiracanthium pennyi and C. erraticum as being more similar to each other than C. erraticum and C. virescens , contra Helsdingen (1979). Barcodes for C. pennyi are not available, so the molecular data cannot help resolving the case. The pedipalp without ridge and the epigynum with short insemination ducts set C. pennyi apart, but these could be autapomorphic. The striking red dorsal line of the opisthosoma is shared by C. pennyi and C. erraticum , but here the loss in C. virescens could be autapomorphic. The preferred topology represented in the tree gives precedence to the genital similarities, but without a sound cladistic basis for this decision.