Anapidae is a family of rather small spiders with 232 described extant species in 58 genera. It includes the former family Micropholcommatidae as the subfamily Micropholcommatinae, and the former family Holarchaeidae. Most species are less than 2 mm long. They generally live in leaf litter and moss on the floor of rain forest. Many build orb webs with a diameter less than 3 cm. In some species, such as Pseudanapis parocula, the pedipalps of the female are reduced to coxal stumps.

Description

Spiders of this family are very small, usually less than two millimeters long, and lack a cribellum. They can have zero, six or eight eyes, the rear median eyes either reduced or missing. One species: 'Epigastrina typhlops' (Rix & Harvey, 2010) has no eyes, an adaption to life underground. In some genera the carapace is modified so that the eyes are raised higher than usual. Color can range from reddish brown, yellowish brown to pale, pigment reduced, creams. Generally both margins of chelicerae have teeth, one exception being 'Acrobleps hygrophilus' who lacks retromarginal teeth. The legs are short and spineless, though there are some with reduced spination such as the genus: 'Teutoniella' or with only one or two long spines such as 'Borneanapis' ). The labium has a spur that extends between the chelicerae and can be seen when the chelicerae are spread.

Distribution

Anapidae are found worldwide, particularly in South America, Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Few genera occur in North America or Europe. Only Comaroma simoni and the three species of Zangherella are found in Europe; Gertschanapis shantzi and Comaroma mendocino are found in the United States.

Systematics

The family Micropholcommatidae was synonymized with this family by Schütt in 2003 and by Lopa et al. in 2011, a change that has been accepted by the World Spider Catalog. Similarly, the family Holarchaeidae was synonymized by Dimitrov et al. in 2017, and likewise accepted by the World Spider Catalog.

Genera

, the World Spider Catalog accepts the following extant genera: There are also genera only known as fossils, typically in Baltic amber: