THE NEARCTIC HAHNIIDAE (ARACHNIDA: ARANEAE) BRENT D. OPELL-AND JOSEPH A. BEATTY 3 Abstract. The taxonomy of the North American and Mexican members of the family Hahniidae is revised; two genera and five species are placed in synonymy, eight new species are described and illustrated, and 20 species are redescribed, illus-trated, and their distributions updated. Obser-vations on the biology of some of these small, ecribellate, entelegyne spiders are included. INTRODUCTION The family Hahniidae includes small entelegyne, ecribellate spiders of the sub-order Labidognatha. They can be recog-nized by the transverse arrangement of three pairs of spinnerets and by the location of a single broad spiracle much in advance of the spinneret bases (Figs. 1, 4, 10, 11) the Neotropic by seven genera and 14 known species, in the Palearctic by five genera and 21 known species, in the Orient by four genera and nine known species, in the Australian zone by ten genera and 33 known species, and in the Ethiopian zone by three genera and ten known species. Three of the Nearctic species are widely distributed. The remainder have a more restricted range. The Hahniidae of America north of Mexico were treated by Gertsch (1934), who, as did other authors, later described additional species of the family. In the last several years many new collections have become available, making a more Their eight eyes are arranged in two thorough revision of the group possible, slightly procurved rows (Figs. 3, 9, 12). The tarsus of each leg bears three serrate ACKNOWLEDGMENTS claws without claw tufts. The ovate ab-We would like to thank the following domen of the hahniids is brown and in for loans of specimens: J. W. Berry, D. E. many specimens has several light dorsal Bixler; W. J. Gertsch, J. A. L. Cooke, and chevrons set off by gray markings. The N. I. Platnick of the American Museum of legs may be either unicolored or banded Natural History (Cornell University, Uni-( Plate 2, Fig. 2). versity of Utah, and U. S. National Museum Hahniidae have a world-wide distri-collections housed at the A.M.N.H. were button, and are represented in the Nearctic also loaned ) ; W. A. Drew of the Oklahoma by three genera and 28 known species, in State University Entomology Museum; H. Dvbas of the Field Museum of Natural 1 A portion of this study was submitted to the Department of Zoology and the Graduate School of Southern Illinois University-Carbondale as a thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. 2 Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 02138. 3 Department of Zoology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, 111. 62901. History; R. L. Fisher of Michigan State University; D. W. Fronk of Colorado State University; M. Grasshoff of the Natur-Museum and Forschungs-Institute, Frank-furt, Germany; A. Holm of the Institute of Zoology, Uppsala, Sweden; E. Komarek of Tall Timbers Research Station; H. W. Levi Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool, 147(9): 393-433, June, 1976 393
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