- Nephilidae
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Nephilidae 
mating Nephila clavipes Scientific classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Arachnida Order: Araneae Suborder: Araneomorphae Superfamily: Araneoidea Family: Nephilidae
Simon, 1894Genera see text
Diversity 4 genera, 73 species 
The Nephilidae are a spider family with 75 described species in four genera. They were formerly grouped in the families Araneidae and Tetragnathidae. The genus Singafrotypa was moved to Araneidae in 2002.
All nephilid genera partially renew their webs.[1]
Contents
Distribution
Species of this family occur worldwide in the tropics.
Reproductive behavior
The genera Herennia and Nephilengys have both undergone extreme sexually driven selection. The pedipalps of these genera have become highly derived by evolving enlarged, complex palps which break off inside of the females copulatory opening after copulation. The broken palps serve as mating plugs which makes future matings with a mated female more difficult.[2] These genera of spiders also participate in mate guarding, a mated male will stand guard by his female and chase off other males, thereby increasing the mated males paternity share. Mated males are castrated in the process of mate plugging, though this may be an advantage in mate guarding as it has been observed that mated males fight more aggressively and win more frequently than virgin males.[3] So while the female spiders are still polyandrous the males have become monogamous.
Genera
- Clitaetra Simon, 1889 (Africa, Madagascar, Sri Lanka)
- Herennia Thorell, 1877 (South Asia, Australia)
- Nephila Leach, 1815 (Pantropical)
- Nephilengys L. Koch, 1872 (Pantropical)
See also
- List of Nephilidae species
- Spider families
References
- ^ Kuntner, M. 2005. A revision of Herennia (Araneae, Nephilidae, Nephilinae), the Australasian ‘coin spiders’. Invertebrate Systematics 19(5):391–436. PDF
- ^ Kuntner, M., J. A. Coddington, and J. M. Schneider. 2009. Intersexual arms race? Genital coevolution in nephilid spiders (araneae, nephilidae). Evolution 63(6):1451-1463.
- ^ Fromhage,L., and J.M. Schneider. 2005. Virgin doves and mated hawks: Contest behaviour in a spider. Animal Behaviour 70(5):1099-1104
Further reading
- Kuntner, M. 2006. Phylogenetic systematics of the Gondwanan nephilid spider lineage Clitaetrinae (Araneae, Nephilidae). Zoologica Scripta 35(1):19-62. PDF
- Kuntner, M. & G. Hormiga. 2002. The African spider genus Singafrotypa (Araneae, Araneidae). Journal of Arachnology 30:129-139. PDF
- Kuntner, M. 2002. The placement of Perilla (Araneae, Araneidae) with comments on araneid phylogeny. Journal of Arachnology 30:281-287. PDF
- Agnarsson I. 2003a. Spider webs as habitat patches - The distribution of kleptoparasites (Argyrodes, Theridiidae) among host webs (Nephila, Tetragnathidae). Journal of Arachnology 31(3):344-349. PDF
- Nephila of Southern Africa
External links
- Kuntner's lab: Official web page with materials on Nephilidae
- Nephilidae.com: A web resource for nephilid spiders
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