Family CRYPTOTHELIDAE L. Koch, 1872
Compiler and date details
Valerie Todd Davies, Robert J Raven, Queensland Museum, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Introduction
Slow moving, 3-clawed, spiders from litter of tropical forests. Body and legs usually caked with soil. Eyes in three rows 2.2.4; posterior row slightly procurved, anterior row strongly procurved. High clypeus. Cheliceral teeth absent, fang weak. Serrula present. Tufts of thick hair in rows on body and legs; a ring of hair round spinnerets and anal tubercle. Legs robust, patellae and tibiae rotund. Female palpal tarsus paddle-shaped and smooth ventrally. A row of trichobothria on metatarsi and tarsi.
Diagnosis
Body encrusted with soil; eight eyes in 3 rows on a single tubercle, three claws but no serrula.
Diagnosis References
Raven, R.J., Baehr, B.C. & Harvey, M.S. 2002. An Interactive Key to Australian Spider Subfamilies. Melbourne : Australian Biological Resources Study: CSIRO Publishing