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SELENOPIDAE Flatties

Wall crab spiders or 'flatties' have laterigrade (sideways-moving) legs. Karaops previously Selenops is the best known and most diverse genus in Australia. They are commonly found on walls, under bark or rocks. They are swift, agile and usually difficult to capture. Most species are cryptic and blend with their surroundings. Karaops has a row of six eyes in a forward-facing curve, plus two more posterior eyes, distinguishing it from a similar cryptic Sparassid, Pandercetes gracilis . A major revision of Selenopidae of Australasia and Oriental Region by Sarah C. Crews & Mark S. Harvey / ZooKeys 99: 1-103 (2011) found the Australian Selenops species to be different enough from their neigbours In Africa, China and South America to warrant their own genus, Karaops to which were added 23 new species, making 24 present in Australia at the time of publication.

  • Crews & Harvey, 2011 - Crews CS, Harvey MS (2011) The spider family Selenopidae (Arachnida, Araneae) in Australasia and the Oriental Region. ZooKeys 99: 1-103. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.99.723
Karaops australiensis

Karaops australiensis (L. Koch, 1875) Bowen-region Flattie
A small to medium-sized spider under bark in vine scrubs and other habitats in the Bowen regional, also recorded in southern Cape York Peninsula. For... 

Selenops australiensis

Karaops raveni (L. Koch, 1875) Australian Flattie
A flat, cryptic spider mostly found in South East Queensland but also more widespread in coastal and hinterland areas to Maryborough and west to... 

 


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