Members of this family are easily recognized because their first three pairs of legs are arranged forward instead of two and they have six eyes instead of eight, arranged in a semicircle.[1] The leg structure appears to be an adaptation for living in silken tubes. Unlike those of the atypical tarantulas, these tubes may branch and are often built in tree bark fissures, as well as under stones.
Segestria Latreille, 1804—Asia, North America, Europe, South America, Africa, New Zealand
The oldest unambiguous members of the family are known from the EoceneBaltic amber.[3]Cretaceous taxa Denticulsegestria, Jordansegestria, Jordariadna, Lebansegestria, Microsegestria, Myansegestria, Palaeosegestria and Parvosegestria, originally described as tube-dwelling spiders, might be members of the stem group of Segestriidae or stem dysderoids instead.[3]
^ abMagalhaes, I. L. F.; Azevedo, G. H. F.; Michalik, P.; Ramírez, M. J. (2020). "The fossil record of spiders revisited: implications for calibrating trees and evidence for a major faunal turnover since the Mesozoic". Biological Reviews. 95 (1): 184–217. doi:10.1111/brv.12559. PMID31713947.
External links
Media related to Segestriidae at Wikimedia Commons