The Pholcoidea or pholcoids are a superfamily of araneomorph spiders. The group has been circumscribed to contain the following three families:[1]

Pholcoidea
Temporal range: Middle Jurassic - Holocene, 164–0 Ma
Pholcus sp., Pholcidae
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Infraorder: Araneomorphae
Superfamily: Pholcoidea
C.L. Koch, 1851[1]
Families

See text.

Phylogeny

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A phylogenetic study based on morphology has shown weak support for the monophyly of the group, as opposed to an earlier hypothesis that two of the families, Diguetidae and Plectreuridae, should be separated from the third in a larger superfamily, Sicarioidea.[2] Pholcoid families are placed in the Haplogynae, spiders with simpler copulatory structures than other araneomorphs. The internal phylogeny of the group is shown in the following cladogram:[3]

Pholcidae

Diguetidae

Plectreuridae

References

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  1. ^ a b Dunlop, Jason A. & Penney, David (2011), "Order Araneae Clerck, 1757" (PDF), in Zhang, Z.-Q. (ed.), Animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level classification and survey of taxonomic richness, Zootaxa, Auckland, New Zealand: Magnolia Press, ISBN 978-1-86977-850-7, retrieved 2015-10-31
  2. ^ Ramírez, Martín J. (2000), "Respiratory system morphology and the phylogeny of haplogyne spiders (Araneae, Araneomorphae)", Journal of Arachnology, 28 (2): 149–157, doi:10.1636/0161-8202(2000)028[0149:RSMATP]2.0.CO;2, S2CID 39168037
  3. ^ Nentwig, Wolfgang, ed. (2013), "Appendix : Spider Phylogeny" (PDF), Spider Ecophysiology, Springer, ISBN 978-3-642-33988-2, retrieved 2015-11-03