The crevice weaver spiders (family Filistatidae) contain primitive cribellate, haplogyne, weavers of funnel or tube webs. The family contains 16 genera and 106 families worldwide. One of the most abundant members of this family in the New World is the Southern house spider (Kukulcania hibernalis). Named after the fierce Meso-American god Kukulcan, the females are large (up to nearly 20 mm) dark-colored spiders and males are light brown, smaller (about 10 mm.), but more long-legged and with palpi that are held together in front of their carapaces like the horn of a unicorn. The males also have a darker streak on the center of the dorsal carapace that causes them to be often mistaken for brown recluse spiders. The tiny members of the genus Filistatinella are like miniature versions of Kukulcania. The nominate genus Filistata is Old World in distribution. In many older books the New World species now placed in the genus Kukulcania are placed in Filistata. The New World is one of the names used for the continents of North and South America and adjacent islands collectively, in use since the 16th century. ... Southern house spiders (Filistada hibernalis, ) are large North American spiders which exhibit strong sexual dimorphism. ... Mesoamerica is the region extending from central Mexico south to the northwestern border of Costa Rica that gave rise to a group of stratified, culturally related agrarian civilizations spanning an approximately 3,000-year period before the European discovery of the New World by Columbus. ... In Maya mythology, Gukumatz (feathered serpent) was a snake god, one of all three groups of gods who created Earth and humanity. ... A brown recluse spider The brown recluse spider is a venomous spider of the family Sicariidae and the genus and species Loxosceles reclusa. ... The Old World consists of those parts of Earth known to Europeans before the voyages of Christopher Columbus: Europe, Asia, and Africa. ...

External links

• Platnick, N.I. 2003. World Spider Catalog.