OpenCage

the common proper noun for spiders of the family unit Atypidae, a widespread group of stout-bodied burrowing spiders. Purse-webs are members of the suborder Mygalomorphae, which also contains the tarantulas. The purse-web spiders are named for their webs, which are long tubes that stick out from their burrows in the shape of an old-fashioned pull-string purse or a stocking.

Purse-web spiders inhabit damp woodlands and sometimes swamps or open woods in temperate to tropical climates. At that place are almost 29 species of purse-webs in three genera: the New World Sphodrus and the Old Globe Atypus and Calommata. The Sphodrus spiders alive in the eastern half of the United States. Atypus and Calommata spiders alive in north temperate Europe and Japan, in the eastern tropics of Myanmar (Burma) and Java, and in tropical areas of Africa.

Near purse-webs are black or night brown to tan, with slightly shiny bodies and sparse hairs. Torso lengths range from 0.4 to 1.5 inches (1.0 to 3.eight centimeters). The males have smaller bodies and longer legs than the females, and they tend to be more colorful. In the largest American purse-web spider, Sphodrus bicolor, the male person is glossy black with yellow to red legs. The male of S. abboti has an iridescent blue or purple belly (the rear section of the body).

Like all tarantulas and their allies, the bag-web spider has powerful jaws and large fangs that move up and down so that they bite with a downward stab. Also typical of the group, they have two pairs of volume lungs. These are respiratory organs, then named considering they are made up of thin, leaflike structures stacked like the pages of a book. The openings of the book lungs are visible as slits on the underside of the abdomen.

Purse-web spiders take eight eyes closely clustered together, with three on each side and two in the middle of the head. The outer edges of their jaws are flattened like shovels as an adaptation for excavating their burrows. On elevation of the belly are one to three hard plates, or sclerites. The base of the male'south palps are enlarged to course lobes that office as chewing mouthparts. Such lobes are also observed in members of the suborder Araneomorphae, often referred to as the true spiders.

The handbag-spider web spider spends near of its life alone clandestine. It digs a burrow with its jaws and spins a silk lining to embrace the walls. Information technology extends the silk lining outside the burrow and along the footing, forming a long tube about 0.v to 0.75 inch (1.three to 2 centimeters) broad. The spider camouflages the tube by fastening bits of debris to the silk. The finished tube looks like a root, vine, or twig. In the genus Atypus of Eurasia and Africa, the tube extends about three.0 inches (7.half-dozen centimeters) beyond the couch and lies on the ground. In the American genus Sphodrus, the tube typically extends a short altitude forth the footing and continues up the side of a tree trunk for another 10 inches (25 centimeters) or and then. The tube is attached to the trunk simply at the pinnacle, then that it vibrates like the string of a violin when disturbed.

When an insect crawls over the tube, the spider feels the vibration from inside the burrow just beneath the ground. Information technology rushes up the inside of the tube and impales the insect through the silk wall with its fangs, injecting a neurotoxic venom that immobilizes the prey. Then the spider saws open the web with a set of serrated teeth on the base of its jaw and pulls its prey inside. Similar all spiders, it secretes digestive juices into the prey, which liquefy the meat. The spider then sucks its victim dry out, tosses out the remains, and repairs its web.

In late spring or during the rainy season, the male handbag-web leaves his couch in search of a mate. When he finds a female's abode, perhaps by using chemical cues, he drums on information technology with his palps, a pair of armlike parts between the oral fissure and legs, and cuts the tube open. If she accepts him, he joins her within, where he may alive with her for several months.

Females hang their egg sacs on the walls of their burrows. The eggs hatch during the summer. Pocketbook-web spiderlings look like small versions of the adult. The spiderlings get out in late summer to dig their own burrows. Spiderlings of the European species Atypus piceus are reported to disperse by ballooning, a maneuver in which a strand of silk catches the wind and launches the spider into the air. Ballooning is unusual in the comparatively heavy tarantula relatives. Purse-web spiderlings have four years to reach machismo. Immature pocketbook-webs have been seen clustered on their mother's belly inside the couch. Females purse-webs take been known to live up to seven years; however, the males die shortly after mating.

In some nomenclature schemes, the purse-web family Atypidae is considered to comprise only one genus, Atypus. The Due north American pocketbook-webs were recently recognized by some authorities as the carve up genus Sphodros. The closest relatives of the purse-web spiders are probably the folding-door spiders.

Critically reviewed by Petra Sierwald

Additional Reading

Comstock, J.H. The Spider Book (Cornell Univ. Press, 1948). Emerton, J.H. The Mutual Spiders of the United states of america (Dover, 1961). Foelix, R.F. Biological science of Spiders, 2nd ed. (Oxford Univ. Printing, 1996). Gertsch, W.J. American Spiders (Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1979). Kaston, B.J. How to Know the Spiders, tertiary ed. (W.C. Brown, 1978). Levi, H.West., and Levi, L.R. Spiders and Their Kin (Gilt Press, 1990). Preston-Mafham, Rod, and Preston-Mafham, Ken. Spiders of the World (Sterling, 1998). Back, Christine. Spider's Web (Silvery Burdett, 1986). Biel, T.L. Spiders (Creative Education, 1991). Gerholdt, J.E. Trapdoor Spiders (Abdo & Daughters, 1996) 50'Hommedieu, A.J. Spiders (Child'southward Play, 1997). Markle, Sandra Exterior and Inside Spiders (Macmillan, 1994). Parsons, Alexandra. Amazing Spiders (Knopf, 1990). Woelflein, Luise. The Spider (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1992). Wootton, Anthony. The Amazing Fact Book of Spiders (Creative Didactics, 1987).