The Spider Species --
Every list needs a beginning ... but not every list needs an end ... which is fortunate because natural species are mobile. Mobile in many ways but especially where geographic distributions are concerned. While many species are, to the best of our current knowledge, restricted to specific habitat types or geographic localities, our rapid altering of landscape and ecosystem has the effect of, on the one hand, limiting or even eliminating some species while often offering new environments for other species. This is, admittedly, putting a far more positive spin on our environmental modifications than they deserve but, I will have to confront the fact that that is a personal view and should be reserved to myself.
The Spider Species of Fort Keogh, Montana
Introduction:
In presenting this list I primarily follow the family arrangement of Kaston as he presented in the Spiders of Connecticut, Bulletin No. 70, State Geological and Natural History Survey, Hartford, 1948. Certainly alterations to that sequence and, indeed, the families themselves have transpired since his publication but they will be addressed as exceptions to his sequence as appropriate.
There is one taxonomic change which has been proposed (and widely accepted) with which I disagree; that is the inclusion of the Erigonidae (Micryphantidae) within the Linyphiidae. I continue to maintain the Erigonids as a separate family and they are presented here as such.
The Families:
Suborder: Orthognatha
Atypidae
Suborder: Labidognatha
Oonopidae
Dysderidae
Segestriidae
Scytodidae
Nesticidae
Theridiosomatidae
Mimetidae
Hahniidae
Oxyopidae
Anyphaenidae
Oecobiidae
Uloboridae
Amaurobiidae