HERSILIIDAE Thorell, 1870 Nombre común en ingles: Long-spinnered spiders / Two-tailed spiders / Whirligig spiders Nombre común en castellano: Se desconoce Familias similares: Género tipo: Hersiliola Audouin, 1826 Diagnosis: Small to medium sized araneomorph spiders; three tarsal claws; ecribellate; entelegine; eight eyes; posterior spinnerets long and slender with apical segment strongly tapering; carapace ovoid and flattened; eyes on tubercles. Caracteres descriptivos: Caparazón: ovoid and flattened; with narrow longitudinal fovea and radiating striae; densely covered with plumose setae. Esternón: hearty-shaped; anterior edge straight or slightly concave. Ojos: eight; in two strongly recurved rows; eyes on a large tubercle; anterior median eyes often larger than posterior median eyes. Quelíceros: unarmed or armed with large and series of minute teeth. Piezas bucales: labium free, with rounded tip; endites converging. Patas: three claws on an onychium, unpaired claw simple; legs very long, especially in males; leg III shortest; metatarsi uniarticulate or biarticulate (except III); trichobothria present; legs with few spines; autospasy occurs at patella-tibia joint. Palpo femenino: tarsus with a toothed claw. Abdomen: flat; densely covered with plumose setae; wider hehind than in front. Hileras: cululus present; posterior spinnerets as long as abdomen in arboreal genera shorter in ground dwelling species, cylindrical with elongated and tapering apical segments; inner surface with a series of long tubules producing thin silk threcads. Sistema respiratorio: two booklungs; tracheal spiracle close to spinnerets. Genitalia: entelegyne; epigyne with broad central septum; male palp without tibial apophyses; some species with spines on inner furface; bulb regular, ovoid or circular; conductor filiform and pointed. Tamaño corporal: 5-10 mm. Color: varies from golden brown to pure white, or almost black and mottled. Estatus taxonómico: According to Lehtinen (1967), the hersiliids are related to the Oecobiidae, Coddington & Levi (1991) and Coddington et al. (2004) place them in the Eresoidea together with the Oecobiidae and Eresidae. Distribución: In the tropical and subtropical regions. Estilo de vida: Hersiliids have diverse lifestyles, ranging from wandering tree-trunk-dwellers to ground-dwelling web-builders. The hunters run around their prey while producing a band of silk to enswathe them. The webs on the ground are very peculiar curtains hanging under rocks and enclosing pebbles. Bibliografía: Baehr, B. & Baehr, M. 1987. The Australian Hersiliidae (Arachnida: Araneae): Taxonomy, phylogeny, zoogeography. Invertebr. Taxon. 1: 351-437. Baehr, B. & Baehr, M. 1993. New species and new records of Hersilidae from Astralia, with an updated key to all Australian species (Arachnida: Araneae: Hersilidae): Fourth supplement to the revision of the Australian Hersilidae. Rec. West. Aust. Mus. 16: 347-391. Baehr, B & Baehr, M. 1998. New species and new records of Hersiliidae from Australia (Arachnida: Araneae: Hersiliidae). Sixth supplement to the revision of the Australian Hersilidae. Rec. West. Aust. Mus. 19: 13-28. Cutler, B. 2005b. Hersiliidae. pp. 116-117 in Ubick, D., Paquin, P., Cushing, P.E. & Roth, V. (Eds) 2005. The Spiders of North America. An Identification Manual. American Arachnological Society. Dippenaar-Schoeman, A.S. & Jocqué, R. 1997. African Spiders: An Identification Manual. Plant Protection Res. Inst. Handbook, no. 9, Pretoria, 392 pp. Foord, S.H. & Dippenaar-Schoeman, A.S. 2005a. First records of the genus Neotama Baehr & Baehr (Araneae: Hersilidae) from the Afrotropical Region. Afr. Invert. 46: 125-142. Foord, S.H. & Dippenaar-Schoeman, A.S. 2005b. Arevision of the Afrotropical species of Hersiliola Thorell and Tama Simon with the description of a new genus Tyrotama (Araneae: Hersiliidae). Afr. Ent. 13: 255-275. Lehtinen, P. T. 1967. Classification of the cribellate spiders and some allied families, with notes on the evolution of the suborder Araneomorpha. Ann. Zool. Fenn. 4: 199-468. Rheims, C. & Brescovit, A. D. 2004. Revision and cladistic analysis of the spider family Hersiliidae (arachnida, Araneae) with emphasis on Neotropical and Nearctic species. Insect Syst. Evol. 35: 189-239. Song, D.X., Zhu, M.S. & Chen, J. 1999. The Spiders of China. Hebei Sci. Technol. Publ. House, Shijiazhuang, 640 pp.           2 géneros y 3 especies presentes en la Península Ibérica: Hersiliola Thorell, 1870             - H. macullata (Dufour, 1831)             - H. simoni (O. P.-Cambridge, 1872) Tama Simon, 1882             - T. edwardsi (Lucas, 1846)