Ground spider
| Ground spiders Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
| Callilepis nocturna, a ground spider found in the Palearctic realm | |
| female Asemesthes ceresicola from South Africa | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae |
| Infraorder: | Araneomorphae |
| Family: | Gnaphosidae Banks, 1892 |
| Diversity | |
| 154 genera, 2,498 species | |
| blue: reported countries (WSC) green: observation hotspots (iNaturalist) | |
Ground spiders comprise Gnaphosidae, the seventh largest spider family with about 2,500 described species in over 100 genera distributed worldwide. There are 105 species known to central Europe, and common genera include Gnaphosa, Drassodes, Micaria, Cesonia, Zelotes and many others. They are closely related to Clubionidae. At present, no ground spiders are known to be seriously venomous to humans.