| | The spider families of Britain and Ireland |
~Clubionidae
Running Foliage Spiders.
Morphology. The adult spiders 2.5–6 mm long; of medium build; decidedly short-legged, or with legs of medium length (but then generally less than twice the body length); not crab-like in stance and locomotion; with eight eyes. The eyes in two horizontal rows of 4; all clear and glassy. The palpal organs of the male of complex structure and enclosed by the specialized, hollowed tarsal segment (the cymbium). Metatarsus IV of the females without a calamistrum. Tarsal claws 2. The tarsi without claw tufts. The abdomen conspicuously patterned dorsally. The spinnerets all unsegmented, or with one pair of spinnerets 2-segmented. The abdomen of the females without a cribellum.
The adults not making snare-webs; actively pursuing their prey (fast ground runners, mainly nocturnal, feeding on other invertebrates).
Representation in Britain and Ireland. 11 species in Britain; in the genera Agroeca, Apostenus, Liocranum, and Scotina.
Comments. The anterior spinners close together, hiding the medians; and the eye group less than half as wide as the maximum width of the carapace, by contrast with most Clubionidae.
Illustrations. • Scotina celans and S. gracilipes. 103, Scotina celans (Bl.), female. 104, Scotina gracilipes (Bl.), male; c, its palpal organs. From Blackwall (1861). • Agroeca brunnea. Agroeca brunnea (Bl.): a, female; b, male; c, palpal organs of the male. From Blackwall (1861). • Liocranum rupicola. Labelled "immature female of Clubonia domestica" by Blackwall, but identified by Bristowe with Liocrana rupicola (Walck.).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. The spider families of Britain and Ireland. Version: 5th August 2019. delta-intkey.com’.
