Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Genus Myrmekiaphila

Trapdoor spider - Myrmekiaphila - male brown spider - Myrmekiaphila large spider dug up - Myrmekiaphila please help me identify this spider. - Myrmekiaphila comstocki Unknown Mygalomorph - Myrmekiaphila Myrmekiaphila spp.? (M. torreya?) - Myrmekiaphila - male Please help us to identify this spider. - Myrmekiaphila comstocki ID me please! - Myrmekiaphila comstocki
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Chelicerata (Chelicerates)
Class Arachnida (Arachnids)
Order Araneae (Spiders)
Infraorder Mygalomorphae (Mygalomorphs)
Family Euctenizidae (Wafer-lid trapdoor spiders)
Genus Myrmekiaphila
Numbers
12 described species:
M. comstocki - Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana
M. coreyi - Florida, southern Georgia
M. foliata - Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia
M. flavipes - southern Indiana
M. fluviatilis - northern Alabama
M. howelli - central Mississippi
M. jenkinsi - central Tennessee, Kentucky
M. millerae - central Mississippi
M. minuta - Florida
M. neilyoungi - Alabama, western Florida
M. tigris - Alabama, Georgia
M. torreya - western Florida, Georgia
Identification
"Males can be separated from those of the other euctenizine genera by the medially compressed and distally expanded metatarsus I" *

Range
southeastern US, westwards to central Texas
Remarks
Trapdoor spiders
Print References
Bailey, A. L., Brewer, M. S., Hendrixson, B. E. & Bond, J. E. (2010). Phylogeny and classification of the trapdoor spider genus Myrmekiaphila: An integrative approach to evaluating taxonomic hypotheses. PLoS One 5(9): e12744. (online PDF)

Bond, J.E. and N.I. Platnick. 2007. A taxonomic review of the trapdoor spider genus Myrmekiaphila (Araneae, Mygalomorphae, Cyrtaucheniidae). American Museum novitates, no. 3596. (online PDF)

Bond, J. E., Hamilton, C. A., Garrison, N. L. & Ray, C. H. (2012). Phylogenetic reconsideration of Myrmekiaphila systematics with a description of the trapdoor spider species Myrmekiaphila tigris (Araneae, Mygalomorphae, Cyrtaucheniidae, Euctenizinae) from Auburn, Alabama. ZooKeys 190: 94-109. (online PDF)