Family SCYTODIDAE Blackwall, 1864
Compiler and date details
Valerie Todd Davies (including the Lycosidae by R.J. McKay), Queensland Museum, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Introduction
The spitting spiders, medium to large, haplogyne spiders with median posterior spiracle. They ensnare prey by squirting a sticky secretion on to it from the fangs. Six eyes in three diads. Dome-shaped carapace and spiny legs. One trichobothrium on metatarsi, none on tarsi. Female palp without a claw. Three tarsal claws on onychium, two rows of teeth on superior claws. Chelicerae fused at base, membranous median lamella ends distally in strong tooth. Colulus present. Two ventral pits situated below female genital groove receive fangs of male during copulation.
Diagnosis
The Scytodidae may be easily separated from all other 6-eyed Australian spiders, except Periegopidae, by the widely spaced pairs of eyes. They differ from Periegopidae by the domed carapace.