Family DEINOPIDAE C.L. Koch, 1850
Compiler and date details
Valerie Todd Davies (including the Lycosidae by R.J. McKay), Queensland Museum, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Introduction
The net-casting spiders, medium to large, 3-clawed cribellate spiders with abdomen much longer than wide. Eyes in three rows 4.2.2. PME facing forwards, very large in Deinopis. Embolus long and coiled. Cribellum undivided. Ventral row of macrosetae on tarsi IV. One trichobothrium on metatarsi, none on tarsi. Recently it has been shown that in construction of frame, radii, non-sticky spiral and sticky spiral, the web is an orb-web with the same patterns of web constructions as other orb-web spiders (Coddington at IX Congress of Arachnology, Panama, 1983).
Diagnosis
Deinopids are recognised by the large ventrally directed carapaceal tubercle on which the anterior lateral eyes are set.