Heckle-mesh Weavers

Dictynidae

(after Framenau et al. 2014): Mesh‐web Spiders (family Dictynidae) are generally small plant dwelling spiders who construct ladder-like webs consisting of parallel threads, crisscrossed with a hackled band of cribellate silk in grass or low shrubs. In New Zealand, species in the genus Arangina build their snares between alluvial gravel in riverbeds and in Australia recent surveys at Western Australian salt lakes recovered species here referred to the genus Devade. Most Dictynidae are easily identified by the peculiar, bowed shape of the chelicerae in males, which are used to disable the female chelicerae during mating, although the chelicerare of male Devade are not bowed.