TROCHANTERIIDAE Flat Gnaphosoid Spiders

This group is not well known, as the spiders are drab brown, flattish, difficult to identify and mostly secretive, living underneath tree bark or rocks. There have been movements of genera to and from other families, notably from Gnaphosidae. Other families in Gnaphisoidea are Ammoxenidae, Cithaeronidae and Gallieniellidae, revised along with Trochanteriidae by Norman Platnick in 2002. Trochanters in spiders refer to the second segment of the leg or palp between the coxa and the femur. Some Trochanteriidae have a greatly elongated trochanter IV, which is at least 1.5 times longer than trochanter III, a fairly bizarre character (Platnick 2002).