Assassin spiders
| Assassin spiders | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Austrarchaea sp. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae |
| Infraorder: | Araneomorphae |
| Family: |
Archaeidae C. L. Koch & Berendt, 1854 |
| Genera | |
|
See text. |
|
| Diversity | |
| 4 genera, about 70 species | |
 |
|
See text.
The Archaeidae are a spider family with about 70 described species in four genera, as of October 2016[update]. Commonly known as assassin spiders, they are also known as pelican spiders, stemming from their specialised anatomy: they have elongated chelicerae (jaws) and necks for catching other spiders.
Spiders of the family Archaeidae are unusual in that they have "necks", which can be very long and slender, or short and fat. Archaeids prey only upon other spiders. Assassin spiders were first known from 40 million year old amber fossils which were found in Europe in the 1840s, and were not known to have living varieties until 1881, when the first living assassin spider was found in Madagascar. They are native to Australia, South Africa, and Madagascar, with the sister family Mecysmaucheniidae occurring in southern South America and New Zealand. They range in size from 2-8 mm.
The fossil record of this family was first identified from Baltic amber dating to the Eocene, although many taxa from these deposits have been reassigned to Mecysmaucheniidae, Pararchaeidae, and Holarchaeidae. Currently valid Baltic species include Archaea levigata and Archaea paradoxa. In 2003, Afarchaea grimaldii was described from Cretaceous Burmese amber aged between 88-95 million years, extending the record of this group considerably.
The family Archaeidae was erected in 1854 by C. L. Koch and Berendt for one genus, Archaea, initially with three extinct species, all found in amber from the Baltic Sea or Bitterfeld in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. No living species are placed in this genus.
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