Brazilian arachnologists from Butantan Institute and the University of Brasília have discovered three new of wafer trapdoor spiders.

The new species, named Fufius minusculus, F. jalapensis, and F. candango, belong to the widespread spider family Cyrtaucheniidae.

Many wafer trapdoor spiders, but not all, make wafer-like doors to their burrows, while others build the cork-like doors found commonly in the true trapdoor spiders.

Little is known about the biology Fufius spiders, but among the curiosities is that instead of burrows they live in silken tubes in crevices, carefully prolonged with silk. They are widely distributed from Guatemala in Central America to southeastern Brazil, in South America.

“What is curious about the genus Fufius is the wide distribution of the species. Normally, mygalomorphs have a very restricted distribution. Furthermore, the genus has species living in contrasting environments as the Amazon, Savannah, and Brazilian Atlantic forest. This makes the genus a potential model for biogeographic studies,” said Dr Rogerio Bertani of Butantan Institute, the senior author of the study published in the open-access journal ZooKeys.

The study also provides the first description of a female Fufius lucasae.

“The three new species described in the paper as well as the redescription of an old species and the description of a female of another species formerly known from male specimen aids in understanding the morphological variability of the species in this little known mygalomorph genus,” Dr Bertani concluded.

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Bibliographic information: Ortega DRM et al. 2013. Three new species of Fufius Simon, 1888 (Araneae, Cyrtaucheniidae) from Brazil with the redescription of Fufius funebris Vellard, 1924 and description of the female of Fufius lucasae Guadanucci & Indicatti, 2004. ZooKeys 352: 93–116; doi: 10.3897/zookeys.352.6189