Lampshade spiders, family Hypochilidae, are among the most primitive of
araneomorphspiders. There are two
genera and twelve
species currently recognized. Like
mygalomorphs, most hypochilids have two pairs of
book lungs, but like araneomorphs they have intersecting fangs, with the exception of some species which have chelicerae in an angle that is neither orthognathous or labidognathous.[1] These long-legged spiders build typical "lampshade" style webs under overhangs and in caves. In the
United States the fauna is primarily associated with the
Appalachian,
Rocky and
California Mountains. Ten of the known species are found in these ranges, all in the genus Hypochilus. The genus Ectatosticta is found in
China.
In one analysis, the Hypochilidae are a sister
clade to the
Neocribellatae, which contains all other spider species in the
Araneomorphae (Coddington & Levi, 1991, p. 576). A more recent study groups them with the
Haplogynae.[2]
Forster, R.R., Platnick, N.I. and Gray, M.R. (1987). A review of the spider superfamilies Hypochiloidea and Austrochiloidea (Araneae, Araneomorphae). Bulletin of the AMNH 185(1):1-116
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