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Family Atypidae - Purseweb Spiders

Black spider - Sphodros niger Sphodros abboti Black and orange ground spider sp? - Sphodros rufipes Black Purseweb Spider - Sphodros niger unidentified spider - Sphodros Sphodros - female
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Chelicerata (Chelicerates)
Class Arachnida (Arachnids)
Order Araneae (Spiders)
Infraorder Mygalomorphae (Mygalomorphs)
Family Atypidae (Purseweb Spiders)
Numbers
one Atypus, seven Sphodros
Identification
large forward-projecting chelicerae, long fangs


abdominal tergites


wide posterior median spinnerets with triangular tips
Range
Atypus karschi - Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia Counties in Pennsylvania(1)

Sphodros regional endemics:
Sphodros abboti - southern Georgia, northern Florida
Sphodros coylei - South Carolina; Hoffman includes many records from Virginia
Sphodros fitchi - literature records from Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas (*new BG records from Iowa)
Sphodros paisano - southeastern Texas, adjacent Mexico

Sphodros widespread taxa:
Sphodros atlanticus - east-central US
Sphodros niger - northeastern US, north from Tennessee, east from Kansas
Sphodros rufipes - widespread in southeastern US, from eastern Texas

Maps for the more widespread species - S. atlanticus, S. niger & S. rufipes, can be found in Hoffmann (2010).
Print References
Coyle, F.A. and W.A. Shear. (1981) Observations on the natural history of Sphodros abboti and Sphodros rufipes (Araneae, Atypidae), with evidence for a contact sex pheromone. J. Arachnol.,9:317-326 (online PDF)

Gertsch, W. J. & Platnick, N. I. (1980). A revision of the American spiders of the family Atypidae (Araneae, Mygalomorphae). American Museum Novitates 2704: 1-39. (online PDF)

Hoffman, R. L. (2010). Purse-web spiders, genus Sphodros, in Virginia (Mygalomorphae: Atypidae). Banisteria 36: 31-38. (online PDF)
Works Cited
1.Atypus karschi Dönitz, 1887 (Araneae: Atypidae): an Asian purse-web spider established in Pennsylvania, USA
Řezáč, M., Tessler, S., Heneberg, P., Herrera, I. M. A., Gloríková, N., Forman, M., Řezáčová, V. & Král, J. . 2022. PLoS One 17(7, e0261695): 1-21.