Gnaphosoidea

Superfamily of spiders

Gnaphosoidea

Gnaphosa bicolor
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Infraorder:	Araneomorphae
Clade:	Entelegynae
Clade:	Dionycha
Superfamily:	Gnaphosoidea Simon, 1893^[1]
Families
See text

The Gnaphosoidea or gnaphosoids are a superfamily of araneomorph spiders with seven families. A 2014 study did not find the group to be monophyletic.

Phylogeny

Gnaphosoidea has been circumscribed to contain the following families:^[1]

Ammoxenidae
Cithaeronidae
Gallieniellidae
Gnaphosidae
Lamponidae
Trochanteriidae

Gnaphosoidea has been placed in the Dionycha clade, itself part of the RTA clade:^[2]

RTA clade

basal clades

Dionycha

	other clades

	Gnaphosoidea

Grate-shaped tapetum clade (including lycosoids)

The Prodidomidae, Lamponidae and Gnaphosidae have been considered "higher gnaphosoids", sharing anterior lateral spinnerets consisting of only a single "joint" (article); the "lower gnaphosoids" (Ammoxenidae, Cithaeronidae, Gallieniellidae and Trochanteriidae) retain a distal article that is represented by an entire ring of hardened (sclerotized) cuticle.^[3] (Earlier the Lamponidae were grouped with the "lower gnaphosoids", having spinnerets of an intermediate kind.^[4]) One hypothesis for the internal phylogeny of the gnaphosoids, defined in this way, is:^[2]

Gnaphosoidea

"lower gnaphosoids"

	Gallieniellidae

	Trochanteridae

	Cithaeronidae

	Ammoxenidae

"higher gnaphosoids"

Lamponidae

	Gnaphosidae

	Prodidomidae

A 2014 study of dionychan spiders did not recover Gnaphosoidea as a monophyletic group, instead finding "gnaphosoid" families other than Gnaphosidae and Prodidomidae to be part of a larger clade, mixed in with three other dionychan families, Liocranidae, Trachelidae and Phrurolithidae. Forcing Gnaphosoidea to be monophyletic produced results described as "quite suboptimal".^[5]

References

^ ^a ^b Dunlop, Jason A. & Penney, David (2011). "Order Araneae Clerck, 1757" (PDF). In Zhang, Z.-Q. (ed.). Animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level classification and survey of taxonomic richness. Zootaxa. Auckland, New Zealand: Magnolia Press. ISBN 978-1-86977-850-7. Retrieved 2015-10-31.
^ ^a ^b Nentwig, Wolfgang, ed. (2013), "Appendix : Spider Phylogeny" (PDF), Spider Ecophysiology, Springer, ISBN 978-3-642-33988-2, retrieved 2015-11-03
^ Platnick, Norman I. & Baehr, Barbara C. (2006). "A revision of the Australasian ground spiders of the family Prodidomidae (Araneae, Gnaphosoidea)" (PDF). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 298 (298): 1–287. doi:10.1206/0003-0090(2006)298[1:AROTAG]2.0.CO;2. S2CID 83420288.
^ Platnick, N.I. (2002), "A revision of the Australasian ground spiders of the families Ammoxenidae, Cithaeronidae, Gallieniellidae, and Trochanteriidae (Araneae: Gnaphosoidea)", Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 271 (271): 1–244, doi:10.1206/0003-0090(2002)271<0001:AROTAG>2.0.CO;2, hdl:2246/494, S2CID 86321070, retrieved 2015-11-20
^ Ramírez, M. (2014). "The morphology and phylogeny of Dionychan spiders (Araneae: Araneomorphae)". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 390 (390): 1–374. doi:10.1206/821.1. hdl:2246/6537. S2CID 86146467. pp. 323–327.