Phyxelida anatolica Griswold, 1990
Phyxelida anatolica is the only representitive of Phyxelididae north of the tropic of Cancer, and one of only four species found outside Africa. It is recorded from southernmost Turkey (Antakya), several localities in Cyprus and four locations in Israel: In the upper Galilee, Mt. Karmel, and Judea. It is found mostly in caves, but also in other dark and humid habitats, such as under stones.
Phyxelida anatolica makes small webs of cribellate silk. It does not exhibit and troglomorphic traits, and is
Female
superficially similar to other troglophilic spiders, such as Loxosceles spp.
photo by: Shlomi Aharon
Known distribution of Phyxelida anatolica
Accession in the World Spider Catalog:
Articles about Phyxelida anatolica:
Griswold, C. E. (1990). A revision and phylogenetic analysis of the spider subfamily Phyxelidinae (Araneae, Amaurobiidae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 196: 1-206.
Thaler, K. & Knoflach, B. (1998). Phyxelida anatolica Griswold, new to Cyprus (Arachnida Araneae: Amaurobiidae, Phyxelidinae). Bulletin of the British Arachnological Society 11: 36-40.
Taxonomic Classification
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Family: Phyxelididae
Genus: Phyxelida
Species: Phyxelida anatolica
Authors: Griswold, 1990
Ecological Classification
Category: Troglophile
Cave zone: All zones, outside
Microhabitat: On floor, under stones
Zonstein, S. L., Marusik, Y. M. & Omelko, M. M. (2015). A survey of spider taxa new to Israel (Arachnida: Araneae). Zoology in the Middle East 61(4): 372-385.
DOI:10.1080/09397140.2015.1095525
Gavish-Regev, E., Aharon, S., Armiach, I & Lubin, Y. D. (2016). Cave survey yields a new spider family record for Israel. Arachnologische Mitteilungen 51: 39-42.
DOI:10.5431/aramit5105
Bosmans, R., Van Keer, J., Russell-Smith, A., Hadjiconstantis, M., Komnenov, M., Bosselaers, J., Huber, S., McCowan, D., Snazell, R., Decae, A., Zoumides, C., Kielhorn, K.-H. & Oger, P. (2019). Spiders of Cyprus (Araneae). A catalogue of all currently known species from Cyprus. Newsletter of the Belgian arachnological Society 34 (Supplement): 1-173.