Family HERSILIIDAE Thorell, 1870
Compiler and date details
Valerie Todd Davies (including the Lycosidae by R.J. McKay), Queensland Museum, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Introduction
Small to medium, 3-clawed spiders with long, thin, laterigrade legs. Extremely long posterior lateral spinnerets with spigots along the length of the inside edge; these spinnerets are strongly recurved, AME larger than ALE. Claws on onychium. One trichobothrium on metatarsi, none on tarsi. Trochanters un-notched. Colulus present. No tibial apophysis on male palp. Hersiliids live on bark and hunt over it at night. Hersilia sp. has been collected from the Northern Territory; this genus differs from Tamopsis in having 2-segmented metatarsi. The family appears to be closely related to the Oecobiidae.
Diagnosis
Hersiliids can be easily distinguished from all other araneomorph spiders by the extremely elongate and apically tapering posterior lateral spinnerets.