Family FILISTATIDAE Ausserer, 1867
Compiler and date details
Valerie Todd Davies (including the Lycosidae by R.J. McKay), Queensland Museum, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Introduction
Cribellate, 3-clawed spiders with simple haplogyne vulva. Calamistrum short and proximal. Lamellate chelicerae fused at base. Eyes in two rows, in cluster well back on carapace. Labium long and pointed, fused to sternum. Maxillae long, converging and meeting over labium. Wide spiracle well forward of sub-terminal spinnerets. Two or more trichobothria on metatarsi, none on tarsi. Autospasy common at tibial-patellar joint. Pritha is found in small webs under bark and has also been found in termite mounds.
Diagnosis
The Filistatidae can be easily distinguished from other Australasian spiders by the following combination of characters: three claws; a cribellum with two fields; one pair of book-lungs; the calamistrum a disordered field of hairs; the tracheal spiracle set well forward of the spinnerets; and labium long and pointed.