Dwarf tarantula

Dwarf Tarantulas
Megahexura fulva
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Suborder:	Mygalomorphae
Superfamily:	Mecicobothrioidea
Family:	Mecicobothriidae Holmberg, 1882
Genera
Hexura (Simon, 1884) Hexurella (Gertsch & Platnick, 1979) Mecicobothrium (Holmberg, 1882) Megahexura (Kaston, 1972)
Diversity
4 genera, 9 species

Dwarf tarantulas, also known as sheet funnel-web spiders are a type of spider from the family Mecicobothriidae. Dwarf tarantulas are one of several families of the sub-order Mygalomorphae; this larger group also includes the true tarantulas.

Description

Dwarf tarantulas, as the name indicates, appear like other species of tarantula, but are physically much smaller. Many specimens are smaller than 1 cm in length, and the largest in the family are seldom larger than 2 cm. The spiders, like all Mygalomorphae, have downward pointing fangs; dwarf tarantulas also have long spinnerets.

Classification

There are currently only 4 recognized genera and 9 recognized species in this family. These are:

Hexura Simon, 1884

• Hexura picea Simon, 1884 — USA
• Hexura rothi Gertsch & Platnick, 1979 — USA

Hexurella Gertsch & Platnick, 1979

• Hexurella apachea Gertsch & Platnick, 1979 — USA
• Hexurella encina Gertsch & Platnick, 1979 — Mexico
• Hexurella pinea Gertsch & Platnick, 1979 — USA
• Hexurella rupicola Gertsch & Platnick, 1979 — USA

Mecicobothrium Holmberg, 1882

• Mecicobothrium baccai Lucas et al., 2006 — Brazil
• Mecicobothrium thorelli Holmberg, 1882 — Argentina, Uruguay

Megahexura Kaston, 1972

• Megahexura fulva (Chamberlin, 1919) — USA

See also

• Spider families

References

• Costa, F.G. & Pérez-Miles, F. (1998). Behavior, life cycle, and webs of Mecicobothrium thorelli, The Journal of Arachnology 26:317-329 PDF
• Gertsch, W.G. & Platnick, N.I. (1979). A revision of the spider family Mecicobothriidae (Araneae, Mygalomorphae). American Museum novitates 2687 PDF (14Mb) - Abstract
• Lucas, Sylvia Marlene; Indicatti, Rafael Prezzi; Brescovit, Antonio Domingos; Francisco, Rafael Carlo (2006). "First record of the Mecicobothriidae Holmberg from Brazil, with a description of a new species of Mecicobothrium (Aranea, Mygalomorphae)". Zootaxa 1326: 45–53. http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/2006f/z01326p053f.pdf. 
• Platnick, Norman I. (2009): The world spider catalog, version 10.0. American Museum of Natural History.