Ricinulei are a small, little-known order of arachnids, sometimes called hooded tickspiders, found in humid leaf litter and caves in tropical Africa and the Americas. They are unusual among arachnids for the hinged, hood-like flap covering their mouthparts, and for males transferring sperm to females using a modified third leg rather than dedicated genital structures used by most other arachnids; the order is thought to include fewer than a hundred described living species, making it one of the rarest and least studied arachnid lineages.
Facts
Classification
System (Realm) Living or Extinct In the Other Atlases
- Also in Geography Atlas: Africa, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: Brazil, found in there.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Ricinulei
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They occur today in west-central Africa (Ricinoides, and see text) and the Americas (Cryptocellus and Pseudocellus) from Brazil to southern Texas, where they inhabit either leaf-litter or caves.
2. Wikidata (taxon extant/extinct status)
Wikimedia Foundation / Wikidata contributorsQ19120, descriptionView the Source Reader Challenges (0)
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