Pimoidae is a small family of araneomorph spiders first described by J. Wunderlich in 1986.[2] As re-circumscribed in 2021, it is monophyletic,[1] and contained 85 species in two genera.[3] It is closely related to the Linyphiidae,[1][4] and is sometimes treated as synonymous with that family.[5]

Pimoidae
Temporal range: Palaeogene–present
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Infraorder: Araneomorphae
Family: Pimoidae
Wunderlich, 1986
Diversity
2 genera, 85 species[1]

The species Pimoa cthulhu, described by Gustavo Hormiga in 1994, is named for Howard Phillips Lovecraft's mythological deity Cthulhu.[4]

Distribution

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The ancestors of the family are thought to have been widely distributed across the Palearctic, Nearctic and Sino-Japanese regions, but species now have a more fragmented distribution.[1]

Genera and species

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As of April 2022, the World Spider Catalog accepted the following genera and species:[6]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Hormiga, Gustavo; Kulkarni, Siddharth; da Silva Moreira, Thiago & Dimitrov, Dimitar (2021). "Molecular phylogeny of pimoid spiders and the limits of Linyphiidae, with a reassessment of male palpal homologies (Araneae, Pimoidae)". Zootaxa. 5026 (1): 71–101. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.5026.1.3. PMID 34810940. S2CID 238681925.
  2. ^ Wunderlich, J. (1986). Spinnenfauna gestern und heute: Fossile Spinnen in Bernstein und ihre heute lebenden Verwandten.
  3. ^ "Currently valid spider genera and species". World Spider Catalog. Natural History Museum Bern. Retrieved 2022-04-23.
  4. ^ a b Hormiga, Gustavo (1994). "A Revision and Cladistic Analysis of the Spider Family Pimoidae (Araneoidea: Araneae)". Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology. 549: 533–542.
  5. ^ Murphy, J. A.; Roberts, M. J. (2015). Spider families of the world and their spinnerets. British Arachnological Society. ISBN 978-0950009377.
  6. ^ "Family: Pimoidae Wunderlich, 1986". World Spider Catalog. Natural History Museum Bern. Retrieved 2022-04-22.