| Midget ground weavers Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae |
| Infraorder: | Araneomorphae |
| Family: | Ochyroceratidae Fage, 1912 |
| Diversity | |
| 10 genera, 165 species | |
| |
Ochyroceratidae is a six-eyed spider family, with 165 described species in ten genera. They are common inhabitants of caves and the tropical forest litter of South Africa, the Caribbean, Asia and South America.[1] Considered an ecological counterpart of the Linyphiidae of the northern temperate zone,[2] species are especially diverse in the Indo-Pacific region.
These spiders build small, irregular sheet-webs in dark, damp places and typically carry eggs in their chelicerae until they hatch. Body length can range from 0.6 to 3.0 millimetres (0.024 to 0.118 in), and some species with very long legs (Althepus, Leclercera) are superficially similar to members of Pholcidae.[2] Differences between males and females are still relatively unknown, but at least one species in the genus Theotima (T. minutissima) was shown to be parthenogenetic.[3]
