The Families of Spiders Represented in the British Isles
| The Families of Spiders Represented in the British Isles | |
Unless indicated otherwise, the following attributes are implicit throughout the descriptions, except where the characters concerned are inapplicable.
Terrestrial.
Morphology. The adult spiders not crab-like in stance and locomotion. The caput not conspicuously ornamented with lobes, turrets or globular swellings. The chelicerae articulated to move horizontally inwards and outwards or obliquely; free at the base. The male palps without a paracymbium. The female palps without a claw. The first two pairs of legs not laterigrade, the stance and locomotion not crab-like; without the spines characteristic of Mimetidae. The abdomen smoothly rounded; without any red coloration. The spinnerets all unsegmented.
The adults not constructing a silken retreat or an underwater diving-bell. The females not carrying egg sacs.
British representation. Widespread.
To view the illustrations with detailed captions, go to the interactive key. This also offers full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2004 onwards. The families of spiders represented in the British Isles. Version: 10th April 2007. http://delta-intkey.com’.