Spiny-legged Trapdoor Spiders

Eucyrtops Pocock, 1897

Type species: Aganippe latior O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1877

Fauna Portal Genus Number: 3155

(after Rix et al. 2017): Species of Eucyrtops can be distinguished from all other Arbanitinae by the presence of a trapezoidal (rarely subquadrate) eye group with a strongly procurved anterior eye row, combined with the presence of a strongly developed retrolateral tibial apophysis in the male pedipalp, the presence of an unmodified (i.e. non-bifurcate) distal embolus, and the absence of a median retrolateral digital process and usually also a pronounced distal retrolateral tibial apophysis on the male pedipalp. Some anomalous Eucyrtops have a similar subquadrate eye group to species of Blakistonia (e.g. E. eremaeus), but can be distinguished by the presence of a more strongly attenuate base to the retrolateral tibial apophysis. Species of Eucyrtops are unusual among Aganippini in that they are most easily identified by the absence of those morphological synapomorphies characteristic of other genera.