NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Mesothelae

The Liphistiidae are the most primitive living spiders, placed in their own suborder, called the Mesothelae. They are characterized by their downward pointing, daggerlike chelicerae, and by having a segmented series of plates on the upper surface of their abdomens. At least some of them live in comparatively primitive trapdoor shelters.

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ooBdoo (4872 words)
	Mygalomorph and Mesothelae spiders have two pairs of book lungs filled with haemolymph, where openings on the ventral surface of the abdomen allow air to enter and diffuse oxygen.
	Most of the early segmented fossil spiders belonged to the Mesothelae, a group of primitive spiders with the spinnerets placed underneath the middle of the abdomen, rather than at the end as in modern spiders (Opisthothelae).
	Recent Mesothelae are characterized by the narrow sternum on the ventral side of the prosoma.

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