Family DYSDERIDAE C.L. Koch, 1837
Compiler and date details
Valerie Todd Davies, Queensland Museum, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Introduction
Medium-sized, 2-clawed, haplogyne spiders with claw tufts. Six eyes or less. A pair of tracheal spiracles just behind book-lungs (tracheal extend to cephalothorax). Sternal extensions around coxae. Retromargin of chelicerae smooth. Colulus present. Tarsal claws pectinate in single row. One trichobothrium on metatarsi, none on tarsi. The family is represented in Australia by the introduced species, Dysdera crocota.
Diagnosis
Dysderids can be recognised by the combined presence of six eyes, all of which are grouped together, porrect chelicerae, and legs III not directed anteriorly.