Trapdoor spider is a common name that is used to refer to various spiders from several different groups that create burrows with a silk-hinged trapdoor to help them ambush prey.

Several families within the infraorder Mygalomorphae contain trapdoor spiders:

  • Actinopodidae, a family otherwise known as 'mouse-spiders', in South America and Australia
  • Antrodiaetidae, a family of 'folding trapdoor spiders' from the United States and Japan
  • Barychelidae, a family of 'brush-footed trapdoor spiders' with pantropical distribution
  • Ctenizidae, a family of 'cork-lid trapdoor spiders' in tropical and subtropical regions
  • Cyrtaucheniidae, a family of 'wafer-lid trapdoor spiders, with wide distribution except cooler regions
  • Euctenizidae, a family of spiders that make wafer-like or cork-like trapdoors
  • Halonoproctidae, a family of spiders that make wafer-like or cork-like trapdoors and includes the phragmotic genus Cyclocosmia
  • Idiopidae, a family of 'spurred-trapdoor spiders' or 'armoured trapdoors' mostly in Southern Hemisphere
  • Migidae, also known as 'ridge fanged trapdoor spiders' or 'tree trapdoor spiders', in the Southern Hemisphere
  • Nemesiidae, a family of 'tube trapdoor spiders', with both tropical and temperate species worldwide
  • Theraphosidae, a family of tarantulas (where just a few species make trapdoors), also with wide distribution

There is also one family of trapdoor spiders in the suborder Mesothelae:

  • Liphistiidae, a family of spiders with armoured abdomens from Southeast Asia, China and Japan
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.