Gnaphosoidea

The Gnaphosoidea or gnaphosoids are a superfamily of araneomorph spiders with seven families. A 2014 study did not find the group to be monophyletic.

Gnaphosoidea
Gnaphosa bicolor
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Infraorder:	Araneomorphae
Clade:	Entelegynae
Clade:	Dionycha
Superfamily:	Gnaphosoidea Simon, 1893[1]
Families
See text

Phylogeny

Gnaphosoidea has been circumscribed to contain the following families:^[1]

• Ammoxenidae
• Cithaeronidae
• Gallieniellidae
• Gnaphosidae
• Lamponidae
• Trochanteriidae

Gnaphosoidea has been placed in the Dionycha clade, itself part of the RTA clade:^[2]

RTA clade	basal clades Dionycha other clades Gnaphosoidea Grate-shaped tapetum clade (including lycosoids)

The Prodidomidae, Lamponidae and Gnaphosidae have been considered "higher gnaphosoids", sharing anterior lateral spinnerets consisting of only a single "joint" (article); the "lower gnaphosoids" (Ammoxenidae, Cithaeronidae, Gallieniellidae and Trochanteriidae) retain a distal article that is represented by an entire ring of hardened (sclerotized) cuticle.^[3] (Earlier the Lamponidae were grouped with the "lower gnaphosoids", having spinnerets of an intermediate kind.^[4]) One hypothesis for the internal phylogeny of the gnaphosoids, defined in this way, is:^[2]

Gnaphosoidea	"lower gnaphosoids" Gallieniellidae Trochanteridae Cithaeronidae Ammoxenidae "higher gnaphosoids" Lamponidae Gnaphosidae Prodidomidae

A 2014 study of dionychan spiders did not recover Gnaphosoidea as a monophyletic group, instead finding "gnaphosoid" families other than Gnaphosidae and Prodidomidae to be part of a larger clade, mixed in with three other dionychan families, Liocranidae, Trachelidae and Phrurolithidae. Forcing Gnaphosoidea to be monophyletic produced results described as "quite suboptimal".^[5]