Linyphiidae
| Dwarf spiders Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
| Neriene radiata | |
| Florinda coccinea | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae |
| Infraorder: | Araneomorphae |
| Superfamily: | Araneoidea |
| Family: | Linyphiidae Blackwall, 1859 |
| Subfamilies | |
|
Dubiaraneinae | |
| Diversity | |
| 641 genera, 4,962 species | |
| blue: reported countries (WSC) green: observation hotspots (iNaturalist) | |
Linyphiidae, spiders commonly known as sheet weavers (from the shape of their webs), or money spiders (in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Portugal) is a family of very small spiders comprising around 5,000 described species in around 650 genera worldwide. This makes Linyphiidae the second largest family of spiders after the Salticidae.
The family is poorly understood due to their small body size and wide distribution; new genera and species are still being discovered throughout the world. The newest such genus is Himalafurca from Nepal, formally described in April 2021 by Tanasevitch. Since it is so difficult to identify such tiny spiders, there are regular changes in taxonomy as species are combined or divided.
Money spiders are known for drifting through the air via a technique termed "ballooning". Females of winter-active sheet weavers, such as Tenuiphantes cristatus and Bolephthyphantes index, are known for building sheet webs in depressions on the surface of snow.
Within the agriculture industry, money spiders are regarded as biological control agents against pest species like aphids and springtails.