Pelican spiders
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Suborder:	Araneomorphae
Superfamily:	Archaeoidea
Family:	Archaeidae C. L. Koch & Berendt, 1854
Genera
see text
Diversity
3 genera, 28 species

The Archaeidae are a spider family with 25 described species in three genera.

Their common name pelican spider stems from their specialised anatomy: They evolved elongated jaws and neck for catching other spiders.

[edit] Distribution

Archaeidae occur in South Africa, Madagascar and Australia. The Archaea are a Gondwana group.

[edit] Assassin spiders

Assassin spiders are a group of spiders of the families Archaeidae and Mecysmaucheniidae, which are extremely unusual in that they have "necks," which can be very long and slender or short and fat. Archaeids prey only upon other spiders, while mecysmaucheniids seem to be generalists. 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 and South Africa and Madagascar, with the sister family Mecysmaucheniidae occurring in Southern South America and New Zealand. They range in size from 8 mm to 2 mm.

[edit] Species

• Archaeinae

• Afrarchaea Forster & Platnick, 1984

• Afrarchaea bergae Lotz, 1996 — South Africa
• Afrarchaea entabeniensis Lotz, 2003 — South Africa
• Afrarchaea fernkloofensis Lotz, 1996 — South Africa
• Afrarchaea fisheri Lotz, 2003 — Madagascar
• Afrarchaea godfreyi (Hewitt, 1919) — South Africa, Madagascar
• Afrarchaea haddadi Lotz, 2006 — South Africa
• Afrarchaea harveyi Lotz, 2003 — South Africa
• Afrarchaea kranskopensis Lotz, 1996 — South Africa
• Afrarchaea lawrencei Lotz, 1996 — South Africa
• Afrarchaea mahariraensis Lotz, 2003 — Madagascar
• Afrarchaea ngomensis Lotz, 1996 — South Africa
• Afrarchaea royalensis Lotz, 2006 — South Africa
• Afrarchaea woodae Lotz, 2006 — South Africa

• Austrarchaea Forster & Platnick, 1984

• Austrarchaea daviesae Forster & Platnick, 1984 — Queensland
• Austrarchaea hickmani (Butler, 1929) — Victoria
• Austrarchaea mainae Platnick, 1991 — Western Australia
• Austrarchaea nodosa (Forster, 1956) — Queensland
• Austrarchaea robinsi Harvey, 2002 — Western Australia

• Eriauchenius O. P.-Cambridge, 1881

• Eriauchenius bourgini (Millot, 1948) — Madagascar
• Eriauchenius cornutus (Lotz, 2003) — South Africa
• Eriauchenius gracilicollis (Millot, 1948) — Madagascar
• Eriauchenius jeanneli (Millot, 1948) — Madagascar
• Eriauchenius legendrei (Platnick, 1991) — Madagascar
• Eriauchenius pauliani (Legendre, 1970) — Madagascar
• Eriauchenius ratsirarsoni (Lotz, 2003) — Madagascar
• Eriauchenius tsingyensis (Lotz, 2003) — Madagascar
• Eriauchenius vadoni (Millot, 1948) — Madagascar
• Eriauchenius workmani O. P.-Cambridge, 1881 — Madagascar

• Jurarchaeinae Eskov, 1987 † (fossil)

• Jurarchaea Eskov, 1987 †

• Jurarchaea zherikhini Eskov, 1987 †

[edit] See also

• List of Archaeidae species
• Spider families

[edit] References

• Penney D. (2003) Afrarchaea grimaldii, a new species of Archaeidae (Araneae) in Cretaceous Burmese amber. Journal of Arachnology 31, 122-130. PDF
• Platnick, Norman I. (2008): The world spider catalog, version 8.5. American Museum of Natural History.

[edit] External links

• "Tiny Assassins" at California Academy of Sciences
• National Geographic Photo in the News: Bizarre Assassin Spiders Discovered in Madagascar
• Eriauchenius lavatenda page at California Academy of Sciences
• Eriauchenius vadoni page at California Academy of Sciences
• Assassin Spiders: Archaeidae and Mecysmaucheniidae

Wikispecies has information related to: Archaeidae