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Macrothele
	Threatening female Macrothele gigas
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Infraorder:	Mygalomorphae
Family:	Macrothelidae
Genus:	Macrothele; Ausserer, 1871
Type species
	M. calpeiana; (Walckenaer, 1805)
Species
	42, see text
Synonyms
	Orientothele Mirza, Sanap & Kunte, 2017;

Macrothele is a genus of mygalomorph spiders in the family Macrothelidae, and was first described by A. Ausserer in 1871.^[3] Most of the species in the genus occur in Asia, from India to Japan, and Java, with five found in Africa, and two in Europe.^[1] The name is derived from Ancient Greek μακρός ("makro-"), meaning "big", and θηλή ("thele"), referring to the spinnerets.^{[citation needed]}

Description

Spiders of this genus are fairly large, with females of some Chinese species ranging from 1 to 3 centimetres (0.4 to 1.2 in) in body length. Males are smaller, sometimes only half that length.^[4] Macrothelids can be distinguished from other mygalomorph spiders by their larger posterior sigillae on the sternum, and the arrangement of the rows of teeth on the margin of the chelicerae: larger front-facing margin and smaller rear-facing.^[5]

These spiders build tube-webs or funnel-webs under rocks or logs, or in crevices in the ground.^[4]

Taxonomy

The genus Macrothele was erected by Anton Ausserer in 1871, with the type species being Macrothele calpeiana, formerly Mygale calpeiana.^[1] ^{[citation needed]} Ausserer placed the genus in the then very broadly defined family Theraphosidae. It was later placed in the Dipluridae and the Hexathelidae before being transferred to the Macrothelidae in 2018.^[1] A molecular phylogenetic study in 2018 suggested that Macrothele was a distinct, early diverging lineage within the Mygalomorphae. Accordingly, Simon's subfamily Macrothelinae was elevated to the family Macrothelidae. There is some doubt if the western and eastern species should be grouped in the same genus.^[6]

The following cladogram shows the possible relationship of Macrothele to related taxa:^[5]

Dipluridae

Hexathelidae

Porrhothelidae

Macrothele (Macrothelidae)

	Calisoga (Nemesiidae)

	Hebestatis (Halonoproctidae)

	Atracidae

	Actinopodidae

Species

As of December 2022^[update], it contains 42 species and one subspecies from Africa, Asia and Europe:^[1]

Macrothele abrupta Benoit, 1965 – Congo
Macrothele alyrata (Mirza, Sanap & Kunte, 2017) – India
Macrothele amamiensis Shimojana & Haupt, 1998 – Japan (Ryukyu Is.)
Macrothele arcuata Tang, Zhao & Yang, 2020 – China
Macrothele bannaensis Xu & Yin, 2001 – China, Laos
Macrothele calpeiana (Walckenaer, 1805) (type) – Southern Europe, North Africa
Macrothele camerunensis Simon, 1903 – Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea
Macrothele cangshanensis Z. B. Yang, Zhao, Zhang & Z. Z. Yang, 2018 – China
Macrothele cretica Kulczyński, 1903 – Greece (Crete)
Macrothele decemnotata Simon, 1909 – Vietnam
Macrothele drolshageni Özkütük, Elverici, Yağmur & Kunt, 2019 – Turkey
Macrothele emei Lin & Li, 2021 – China
Macrothele gigas Shimojana & Haupt, 1998 – Japan (Ryukyu Is.)
Macrothele guizhouensis Hu & Li, 1986 – China
Macrothele hanfeii Lin & Li, 2021 – China (Hainan)
Macrothele holsti Pocock, 1901 – Taiwan
Macrothele hungae Lin & Li, 2021 – Taiwan
Macrothele incisa Benoit, 1965 – Congo
Macrothele jingzhao Chen, Jiang & Yang, 2020 – China
Macrothele jinlin Z. B. Yang, Zhao, Zhang & Z. Z. Yang, 2018 – China
Macrothele limenghuai Lin & Li, 2021 – China
Macrothele maculata (Thorell, 1890) – Myanmar, Indonesia (Sumatra, Java)
- M. m. annamensis Hogg, 1922 – Vietnam
Macrothele menglunensis Li & Zha, 2013 – China
Macrothele mingsheng Wu & Z. Z. Yang, 2022 – China
Macrothele monocirculata Xu & Yin, 2000 – China
Macrothele multispine Wang, Li & Yang, 2019 – China
Macrothele nanning Lin & Li, 2021 – China
Macrothele proserpina Simon, 1909 – Vietnam
Macrothele raveni Zhu, Li & Song, 2000 – China
Macrothele sanheensis Tang, Zhao & Yang, 2020 – China
Macrothele segmentata Simon, 1892 – Malaysia
Macrothele simplicata (Saito, 1933) – Taiwan
Macrothele taiwanensis Shimojana & Haupt, 1998 – Taiwan
Macrothele triangularis Benoit, 1965 – Congo
Macrothele undata Tang, Zhao & Yang, 2020 – China
Macrothele vidua Simon, 1906 – India
Macrothele washanensis Wu & Z. Z. Yang, 2022 – China
Macrothele wuliangensis Wu & Z. Z. Yang, 2022 – China
Macrothele yaginumai Shimojana & Haupt, 1998 – Japan (Ryukyu Is.)
Macrothele yani Xu, Yin & Griswold, 2002 – China
Macrothele yongshengensis Z. B. Yang, Zhao & Z. Z. Yang, 2019 – China
Macrothele yunlingensis Z. B. Yang, Zhao & Z. Z. Yang, 2019 – China

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "Gen. Macrothele Ausserer, 1871". World Spider Catalog Version 23.5. Natural History Museum Bern. 2022. doi:10.24436/2. Retrieved 2 December 2022.
^ Drolshagen, B. (2017). "Orientothele Mirza, Sanap & Kunte, 2017 is a junior synonym of Macrothele Ausserer, 1871 (Araneae: Hexathelidae)". Arachnology. 17 (6): 282. doi:10.13156/arac.2017.17.6.282. S2CID 89984804.
^ Ausserer, A. (1871). "Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Arachniden-Familie der Territelariae Thorell (Mygalidae Autor)". Verhandlungen der Kaiserlich-Königlichen Zoologisch-Botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien. 21: 117–224.
^ ^a ^b Zhu, M.S. & Song, D.X. (2000). "Review of the Chinese funnel-web spiders of the genus Macrothele, with descriptions of two new species (Araneae:Hexathelidae)" (PDF). The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 48 (1): 59–64. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-02-05. Retrieved 2018-05-20(with key to Chinese species){{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
^ ^a ^b Hedin, M.; Derkarabetian, S.; Ramírez, M.J.; Vink, C. & Bond, J.E. (2018). "Phylogenomic reclassification of the world's most venomous spiders (Mygalomorphae, Atracinae), with implications for venom evolution". Scientific Reports. 8 (1636): 1636. Bibcode:2018NatSR...8.1636H. doi:10.1038/s41598-018-19946-2. PMC 5785998. PMID 29374214.
^ Murphy, Frances & Murphy, John (2000). An Introduction to the Spiders of South East Asia. Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Nature Society.