World Spider Catalog

Theridiidae Sundevall, 1833

Family | ACCEPTED

N.B.: considered a senior synonym of Hadrotarsidae Thorell, 1881: 190 (sub Hardotarsoidae, removed from the synonymy of Oonopidae by Roewer, 1963a: 122, contra Roewer, 1942a: 287) by Forster, Platnick & Coddington, 1990: 111 (after Wunderlich, 1978a: 25 and Wunderlich, 1986: 95, contra Baert, 1984a: 615 and Davies, 1985: 67), who recognized an expanded Hadrotarsinae as well as a separate subfamily Spintharinae Simon, 1894a: 512 (sub Spinthareae); the subfamily Theonoeinae Simon, 1894a: 586 (sub Theonoeae) (synonym Pholcommatinae Simon, 1894a: 589, sub Pholcommateae), which include Theonoe Simon, 1881, Carniella Thaler & Steinberger, 1988, Robertus O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1879 and Pholcomma Thorell, 1869, is circumscribed by Eskov & Marusik, 2024: 51; Eskov & Marusik, 2024: 52 also mention the subfamilies Argyrodinae Simon, 1881a: 14 (sub Argyrodini) and Latrodectinae Petrunkevitch, 1928: 117 (junior synyonym of Dipoeninae Simon, 1894a: 561, sub Dipoeneae).

Gen. Meotipa Simon, 1895 urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidergen:04199

type Meotipa picturata Simon, 1895; gender feminine

N.B.: as nomen nudum by Simon, 1894a: 519; removed from the synonymy of Chrysso O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1882 by Deeleman-Reinhold, 2009b: 407, contra Levi & Levi, 1962: 23; not a synonym of Physcoa Thorell, 1895 (Yoshida, 2001c: 174 [as synonym of Chrysso O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1882, by transfer of the type species], contra Simon, 1895a: 1068).

Transferred to other genera:

Meotipa lingchuanensis (Zhu & Zhang, 1992) -- see Meotipa

In synonymy:

Meotipa buitenzorgi (Strand, 1907) = Meotipa spiniventris (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1869) (Roewer, 1942a: 483, sub Theridion)

Meotipa clementinae (Petrunkevitch, 1930) = Meotipa pulcherrima (Mello-Leitão, 1917) (Levi, 1967b: 26)

Meotipa hyoshidai (Barrion, Barrion-Dupo & Heong, 2013) = Meotipa lingchuanensis (Zhu & Zhang, 1992) (Lin et al., 2023a: 521, sub Chrysso)

Meotipa jianglensis (Zhu & Song, 1993, T from Chrysso) = Meotipa vesiculosa Simon, 1895 (Yoshida, 2006: 23, sub Chrysso)

Meotipa mussau Chrysanthus, 1975 = Meotipa pulcherrima (Mello-Leitão, 1917) (Yoshida, 2003a: 126)

Meotipa andamanensis (Tikader, 1977) | | India (Andaman Is.) urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:006979

Argyrodes andamanensis Tikader, 1977a: 170, f. 7A-B (Df) Original description

Meotipa andamanensis Kulkarni et al., 2017: 515 (T from Argyrodes)

Meotipa anei (Barrion & Litsinger, 1995) | | Philippines urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:007228

Chrysso anei Barrion & Litsinger, 1995: 422, f. 250a-e (Df) Original description

Meotipa anei Hu et al., 2026a: 201 (T from Chrysso)

Meotipa argyrodiformis (Yaginuma, 1952) | | India, China, Japan, Philippines urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:007230

Ariamnes argyrodiformis Yaginuma, 1952: 14, f. 1-6 (Df) Original description

Topo argyrodiformis Yaginuma, 1955c: 16 (T from Ariamnes = Argyrodes)

Chrysso argyrodiformis Yaginuma, 1965a: 35 (T from Topo = Thwaitesia)

Chrysso argyrodiformis Yaginuma, 1986a: 45, f. 24.3 (f, Dm)

Chrysso argyrodiformis Chikuni, 1989b: 32, f. 14 (mf)

Chrysso argyrodiformis Chen & Gao, 1990: 93, f. 116 (f)

Chrysso argyrodiformis Barrion & Litsinger, 1995: 419, f. 248a-i, 249a-b (mf)

Chrysso argyrodiformis Yoshida, 2003a: 128, f. 338, 343-345, 584 (mf)

Meotipa argyrodiformis Yoshida, 2009b: 378, f. 208-210 (mf, T from Chrysso)

Chrysso argyrodiformis Yin et al., 2012: 293, f. 106a-d (f)

Chrysso argyrodiformis Sen et al., 2015: 85, f. 493-498, pl. 19 (f)

Meotipa argyrodiformis Deng et al., 2022: 155, f. 1A-H (f)

Meotipa bituberculata Deeleman-Reinhold, 2009 | | Indonesia (Sumatra, Java) urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:043087

Meotipa bituberculata Deeleman-Reinhold, 2009b: 419, f. 20-37 (Dmf) Original description

Meotipa capacifaba Li, Liu, Xu & Yin, 2020 | | China urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:052397

Meotipa capacifaba Li et al., 2020b: 178, f. 1A-J, 2A-E, 3A-E (Dmf) Original description

Meotipa cordata Hu, Zhong, Liu & Li, 2026 | | China urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:066660

Meotipa cordata Hu et al., 2026a: 201, f. 5A-B, 7A, E, I (Df) Original description

Meotipa impatiens Deeleman-Reinhold, 2009 | | Malaysia, Indonesia (Sumatra, Borneo) urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:043088

Meotipa impatiens Deeleman-Reinhold, 2009b: 425, f. 38-47 (Dmf) Original description

Meotipa isumbo (Barrion & Litsinger, 1995) | | Philippines urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:007247

Chrysso isumbo Barrion & Litsinger, 1995: 423, f. 252a-e (Df) Original description

Meotipa isumbo Hu et al., 2026a: 201 (T from Chrysso)

Meotipa kudawaensis Benjamin & Tharmarajan, 2024 | | Sri Lanka urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:063054

Meotipa kudawaensis Benjamin & Tharmarajan, 2024: 3, f. 2A-J, 3A-B (Df) Original description

Meotipa lingchuanensis (Zhu & Zhang, 1992) | | China urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:007250

Chrysso lingchuanensis Zhu & Zhang, 1992: 22, f. 2A-D (Df) Original description

Chrysso lingchuanensis Zhu, 1998: 55, f. 29A-F (Dm, f)

Chrysso lingchuanensis Song, Zhu & Chen, 1999: 103, f. 49E-F, M-N (mf)

Chrysso hyoshidai Barrion, Barrion-Dupo & Heong in Barrion et al., 2013: 34, f. 38A-E (Df) [urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:048450]

Chrysso lingchuanensis Lin et al., 2023a: 521 (S of Chrysso hyoshidai)

Meotipa lingchuanensis Hu et al., 2026a: 203, f. 6A-E, 7B-C, F-G, J-K (m, T from Chrysso)

Meotipa lingulata Liang, Yin & Xu, 2024 | | China urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:062891

Meotipa lingulata Liang, Yin & Xu, 2024: 160, 1A-F, 2A-B (Df) Original description

Meotipa luoqiae Lin & Li, 2021 | | China urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:053145

Meotipa luoqiae Lin & Li in Lin et al., 2021a: 146, f. 47A-C, 48A-B, 53G-H (Dm) Original description

Meotipa makiling (Barrion-Dupo & Barrion, 2015) | | Philippines urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:048251

Chrysso makiling Barrion-Dupo & Barrion, 2015: 23, f. 1A-D (Df) Original description

Meotipa makiling Murthappa et al., 2017: 595 (T from Chrysso)

Meotipa menglun Lin & Li, 2021 | | China urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:053146

Meotipa menglun Lin & Li in Lin et al., 2021a: 148, f. 49A-C, 50A-D, 53I-J (Dm) Original description

Meotipa multuma Murthappa, Malamel, Prajapati, Sebastian & Venkateshwarlu, 2017 | | India, Sri Lanka urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:049712

Meotipa multuma Murthappa et al., 2017: 592, f. 3A-E, 4E-F (Df) Original description

Meotipa multuma Sekhar & Sunil Jose, 2021b: 81, f. 1-8 (Dm, f)

Meotipa multuma Benjamin & Tharmarajan, 2024: 5, f. 1A-C, 4A-I, 5A-H, 6A-C (mf)

Meotipa pallida Deeleman-Reinhold, 2009 | | Indonesia (Sumatra, Borneo) urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:043089

Meotipa pallida Deeleman-Reinhold, 2009b: 429, f. 48-50 (Df) Original description

Meotipa picturata Simon, 1895 | | India, Sri Lanka, China, Thailand, Laos, Indonesia urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:007261 TYPE SPECIES

Meotipa picturata Simon, 1895g: 133 (Df) Original description

Meotipa picturata Levi & Levi, 1962: 47, f. 112-113 (f)

Meotipa picturata Deeleman-Reinhold, 2009b: 410, f. 1-3 (f)

Meotipa picturata Kulkarni et al., 2017: 515, f. 39-44 (f)

Meotipa picturata Murthappa et al., 2017: 590, f. 1A-J, 2A-F, 4A-D (Dm, f)

Meotipa picturata Deng et al., 2022: 161, f. 3A-H, 9A (f)

Meotipa picturata Benjamin & Tharmarajan, 2024: 12, f. 1D-E, 7A-J, 8A-I, 9A-D (mf)

Meotipa pseudomultuma Liang, Yin & Xu, 2024 | | China urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:062892

Meotipa pseudomultuma Liang, Yin & Xu, 2024: 162, f. 3A-F, 4A-B, 5A-F, 6A-C (Dmf) Original description

Meotipa pseudopicturata Deng, Agnarsson, Chen & Liu, 2022 | | China urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:053715

Meotipa pseudopicturata Deng et al., 2022: 169, f. 7A-H (Df) Original description

Meotipa pulcherrima (Mello-Leitão, 1917) | | Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Indonesia (New Guinea), Pacific Is. Introduced to the Americas and Tropical Africa urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:007262

Argyrodes pulcherrimus Mello-Leitão, 1917a: 86, f. 7-8 (Df) Original description

Meotipa clementinae Petrunkevitch, 1930a: 212, f. 61-62 (Df) [urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:062894]

Meotipa clementinae Schmidt, 1956a: 30, f. 6 (Dm)

Meotipa clementinae Schmidt, 1956f: 240, f. 1 (f)

Chrysso clementinae Levi, 1962b: 231, f. 71-75 (mf)

Chrysso pulcherrima Levi, 1967b: 26 (removed from S of Argyrodes elevatus, rejecting Exline & Levi, 1962: 135, S of Meotipa clementinae)

Chrysso pulcherrima Levi, 1967c: 182, f. 28-31 (mf)

Chrysso mussau Chrysanthus, 1975: 48, f. 174-177 (Dmf) [urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:007253]

Chrysso pulcherrima Zhu & Zhang, 1992: 23, f. 3A-D (mf)

Chrysso clementinae Müller, 1992: 99, f. 5-6 (f)

Chrysso pulcherrima Yoshida, 1993c: 30, f. 10-12, 20 (mf)

Chrysso pulcherrima Zhu, 1998: 54, f. 28A-D (mf)

Chrysso pulcherrima Song, Zhu & Chen, 1999: 103, f. 50A-B, J (mf)

Chrysso pulcherrima Yoshida, 2003a: 126, f. 337, 341-342 (mf, S of Chrysso mussau)

Chrysso pulcherrima Seo, 2005a: 123, f. 2A-B (m)

Meotipa pulcherrima Yoshida, 2009b: 378, f. 211-213 (mf, T from Chrysso)

Meotipa pulcherrima Kim, 2021: 79, f. 32A-F (f)

Meotipa pulcherrima Dippenaar-Schoeman et al., 2021z: 50, 5 f. (mf)

Meotipa pulcherrima Deng et al., 2022: 158, f. 2A-H, 9C-D (f)

Meotipa pulcherrima Noguchi et al., 2023: 144, f. 3F (f)

Chrysso pulcherrima Baert et al., 2023: 30, f. 111A-D (mf)

Meotipa rufopicta (Thorell, 1895) | | Myanmar urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:007138

Ariamnes rufopictus Thorell, 1895b: 76 (Df) Original description

Ariamnes rufopictus Agnarsson, 2004: 478 (T from Argyrodes, see note at Argyrodes)

Meotipa rufopictus Vanuytven, Jocqué & Deeleman-Reinhold, 2025: 145 (T from Ariamnes)

Meotipa sahyadri Kulkarni, Vartak, Deshpande & Halali, 2017 | | India urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:049478

Meotipa sahyadri Kulkarni et al., 2017: 506, f. 1-38 (Dmf) Original description

Meotipa spiniventris (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1869) | | Sri Lanka, India, China, Taiwan, Japan urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:007273

Theridion spiniventre O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1869b: 384, pl. 12, f. 52-56 (Dm) Original description

Theridion buitenzorgi Strand, 1907m: 412 (invalid provisional name) [urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:062895]

Theridion spiniventre Roewer, 1942a: 483 (S of Theridion buitenzorgi)

Theridion spiniventre van der Hammen, 1949: 76, f. 1-3 (mf)

Theridion spiniventre Yoshida, 1977: 9, f. 1-4 (mf)

Chrysso spiniventre Yaginuma, 1986a: 46, f. 24.5 (mf, T from Theridion)

Theridion spiniventre Song, 1987: 128, f. 89 (mf)

Chrysso spiniventris Zhu, 1998: 66, f. 38A-D (mf)

Chrysso spiniventris Song, Zhu & Chen, 1999: 107, f. 50E-L (mf)

Chrysso spiniventris Yoshida, 2003a: 130, f. 346-350 (mf)

Meotipa spiniventris Yoshida, 2009b: 378, f. 214-216 (mf, T from Chrysso)

Meotipa spiniventris Benjamin & Tharmarajan, 2024: 15, f. 10A-H, 11A-I, 12A-B (mf)

Meotipa striata Deng, Agnarsson, Chen & Liu, 2022 | | China urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:053716

Meotipa striata Deng et al., 2022: 171, f. 8A-H (Df) Original description

Meotipa sujii Benjamin & Tharmarajan, 2024 | | Sri Lanka urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:063055

Meotipa sujii Benjamin & Tharmarajan, 2024: 18, f. 13A-G, 14A-H, 15A-H, 16A-I, 17A-C (Dmf) Original description

Meotipa thalerorum Deeleman-Reinhold, 2009 | | Malaysia, Indonesia (Sumatra, Java) urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:043086

Meotipa thalerorum Deeleman-Reinhold, 2009b: 411, f. 4-12 (Dmf) Original description

Meotipa tiboli (Barrion & Litsinger, 1995) | | Philippines urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:007276

Chrysso tiboli Barrion & Litsinger, 1995: 423, f. 251a-f (Df) Original description

Meotipa tiboli Hu et al., 2026a: 201 (T from Chrysso)

Meotipa tortuosa Liang, Yin & Xu, 2024 | | China urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:062893

Meotipa tortuosa Liang, Yin & Xu, 2024: 166, f. 7A-F, 8A-B, 9A-F, 10A-C (Dmf) Original description

Meotipa ultapani Basumatary & Brahma, 2019 | | India urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:051281

Meotipa ultapani Basumatary & Brahma, 2019a: 21, f. 1-15 (Df) Original description

Meotipa vesiculosa Simon, 1895 | | Japan, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:007281

Meotipa vesiculosa Simon, 1894a: 514, f. 522, 527 (nomen nudum)

Meotipa vesiculosa Simon, 1895g: 134 (Df) Original description

Chrysso vesiculosa Levi, 1962b: 232, f. 80-81 (f)

Chrysso vesiculosa Yaginuma, 1986a: 45, f. 24.1 (f)

Chrysso vesiculosa Chikuni, 1989b: 32, f. 15 (f)

Chrysso jianglensis Zhu & Song in Song, Zhu & Li, 1993: 857, f. 9A-C (Dm) [urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:007248]

Chrysso vesiculosa Zhu, 1998: 51, f. 25A-C (f)

Chrysso jianglensis Zhu, 1998: 68, f. 39A-C (m)

Chrysso jianglensis Song, Zhu & Chen, 1999: 103, f. 49K-L (m)

Chrysso vesiculosa Song, Zhu & Chen, 1999: 107, f. 51E-F (f)

Chrysso vesiculosa Yoshida, 2003a: 125, f. 336, 339-340, 583 (f)

Chrysso vesiculosa Yoshida, 2006: 23, f. 1-7 (mf, S of Chrysso jianglensis)

Meotipa vesiculosa Deeleman-Reinhold, 2009b: 415, f. 13-19 (mf, T from Chrysso)

Meotipa vesiculosa Yoshida, 2009b: 378, f. 205-207 (mf)

Chrysso vesiculosa Yin et al., 2012: 305, f. 115a-f (mf)

Meotipa vesiculosa Deng et al., 2022: 167, f. 6A-H (f)

Meotipa vittiforma Hu, Zhong, Liu & Li, 2026 | | China (Hainan) urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:066661

Meotipa vittiforma Hu et al., 2026a: 204, f. 5C-D, 7D, H, L (Df) Original description

Meotipa wuzhishanensis Benjamin, 2024 | | China urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:063056

Meotipa spiniventris Deng et al., 2022: 163, f. 4A-H, 5A-H, 9B (mf; misidentified per Benjamin & Tharmarajan, 2024: 22)

Meotipa wuzhishanensis Benjamin in Benjamin & Tharmarajan, 2024: 22 (Dmf) Original description

Meotipa zhengguoi Lin & Li, 2021 | | China urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:053147

Meotipa zhengguoi Lin & Li in Lin et al., 2021a: 150, f. 51A-B, 52A-D, 53K-L (Dm) Original description