Net-casting Spiders

Deinopidae

(after Framenau et al. 2014) Deinopids are long-bodied and long-legged spiders. The embolus of the male pedipalp is thin, relatively flat, and coils multiple times around a single tegular apophysis, allowing an extreme rotation of the bulb during copulation. Species in the genus Deinopis, the Ogre-face Spiders, can be recognised by greatly enlarged posterior median eyes. Species in the genus Menneus, the Hump-backed Spiders, have normal-sized posterior median eyes and the carapace usually has a distinct posterior guanine patch. Spiders in the genus Deinopis are generally larger than those of Menneus, but sizes overlap.

The prey-capture strategy of the Net-casting Spiders (family Deinopidae) is unique amongst spiders and, similar to the Bola Spiders in the family Araneidae. They have taken their (reduced) orb-web ‘into their own hands’. Net-casting spiders hold their rectangular cribellate capture web between their legs, suspended in a framework of what is believed to be a reduced orb.