Tarsal Organ Morphology and the Phylogeny of Goblin Spiders (Araneae, Oonopidae), with Notes on Basal Genera

The Goblin Spider GenusIschnothyreus(Araneae, Oonopidae) in the New World

“…Just as in the similar examples detailed in Platnick et al (2011) for Brignolia Dumitresco and Georgesco and in Platnick et al (2012a) for Orchestina Simon, Saaristo provided no putative synapomorphies uniting all the relevant species other than I. jivani and hence supporting the placement of that species as the sister group of all the others. We know of no such characters; Saaristo's artificial, monotypic genus is therefore positively misleading phylogenetically, and is here placed in synonymy.…”

The Goblin Spider GenusKhamisiaand Its Relatives (Araneae, Oonopidae)

“…Oonopines are also usually easy to recognize by their rather stereotyped tarsal organ morphology (Platnick et al, 2012a); their tarsal organs are serially dimorphic, with three raised receptors on the anterior legs but only two raised receptors on the posterior legs and pedipalps. Perhaps the most obvious modifications of this general pattern occur within the complex of genera including Stenoonops Simon, Longoonops Platnick and Dupérré, Australoonops Hewitt, Scaphioides Bryant, Hortoonops Platnick and Dupérré, and Reductoonops Platnick and Berniker.…”

Redescription of Tapinesthis inermis (Araneae, Oonopidae), with detailed information on its ultrastructure

“…The sperm duct in the bulbus of Tapinesthis has a thin-walled part, but the distal part is still clearly sclerotized. However, this structure cannot be considered identical to the sclerotized duct as found in Orchestina and the outgroups used in Platnick et al (2012); hence an intermediate state for this set-up would be necessary. The tarsal organ receptor pattern that gives the impression to be 4433 at a first glance turns out to be 3322, since the distalmost receptor appears to be bifid.…”

“…Later, a third subfamily, the monotypic Orchestininae, was added for the genus Orchestina (Chamberlin & Ivie 1942). In a recent paper, Platnick et al (2012) profoundly changed the subfamilial structure of the Oonopidae. The main characters they used were the structure of the tarsal organs and more precisely their number of receptors, the sclerotization of the spermduct in the male palp and the position of the eyes.…”