Nemesiidae


Nemesiidae is a family of mygalomorph spiders first described by Eugène Simon in 1889, and raised to family status in 1985. Before becoming its own family, it was considered part of "Dipluridae". The family is sometimes referred to as wishbone spiders due to the shape of their burrows.

Description

Nemesiidae are relatively large spiders with robust legs and a body that is nearly three times as long as it is wide. They are darkly colored, brown to black, though some have silvery hairs on their carapace. Atmetochilus females can grow over long.
They live in burrows, often with a hinged trapdoor. This door is pushed up while the spider waits for passing prey. They rarely leave their burrows, catching prey and withdrawing as quickly as possible. Some of these burrows have side tubes. For the east-Asian genus Sinopesa it is uncertain whether it builds burrows at all.

Genera

, this family includes ten genera and 195 species:Amblyocarenum Simon, 1892 – Algeria, Tunisia, Italy, SpainBrachythele Ausserer, 1871 – Turkey, EuropeCalisoga Chamberlin, 1937 – United StatesDamarchilus Siliwal, Molur & Raven, 2015 – IndiaGravelyia Mirza & Mondal, 2018 – IndiaIberesia Decae & Cardoso, 2006 – Algeria, Morocco, Portugal, SpainMexentypesa Raven, 1987 – MexicoNemesia Audouin, 1826 – Mozambique, Algeria?, Morocco?, China, Europe, CubaRaveniola Zonstein, 1987 – Asia, RussiaSinopesa Raven & Schwendinger, 1995 – China, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam
Transferred to other families:

Extinct genera

†Eodiplurina Petrunkevitch 1922 Florissant Formation, United States, Eocene