Nephilinae

{{Short description|Spider subfamily}} {{Automatic taxobox | image = Nephila pilipes, Bangunjiwo, Bantul 2015-09-19 04.jpg | image_caption = Female ''Nephila pilipes'' | taxon = Nephilidae | authority = Simon, 1894 | diversity_link = #Genera | diversity = 7 genera | range_map = Distribution.nephilidae.1.png | subdivision_ranks = Genera | subdivision = See text. }}

'''Nephilinae''' is a spider subfamily in the family Araneidae, commonly referred to as '''golden orb-weavers'''. It has also been treated as the family '''Nephilidae'''.<ref name="Kuntner2019">{{cite journal |last1=Kuntner |first1=Matjaž |last2=Hamilton |first2=Chris A |last3=Cheng |first3=Ren-Chung |last4=Gregorič |first4=Matjaž |last5=Lupše |first5=Nik |last6=Lokovšek |first6=Tjaša |last7=Lemmon |first7=Emily Moriarty |last8=Lemmon |first8=Alan R |last9=Agnarsson |first9=Ingi |last10=Coddington |first10=Jonathan A |last11=Bond |first11=Jason E |last12=Paterson |first12=Adrian |date=July 2019 |title=Golden Orbweavers Ignore Biological Rules: Phylogenomic and Comparative Analyses Unravel a Complex Evolution of Sexual Size Dimorphism |journal=Systematic Biology |volume=68 |issue=4 |pages=555–572 |doi=10.1093/sysbio/syy082 |pmc=6568015 |pmid=30517732 |doi-access=free}}</ref> The various genera in the subfamily were formerly placed in Tetragnathidae. All nephiline genera partially renew their webs.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Kuntner|first=Matjaž|year=2005|title=A revision of ''Herennia'' (Araneae : Nephilidae : Nephilinae), the Australasian 'coin spiders'|journal=Invertebrate Systematics|publisher=CSIRO Publishing|volume=19|issue=5|pages=391–436|doi=10.1071/IS05024}}</ref>

==Reproductive behavior== The genera ''Herennia'', ''Nephilengys'' and ''Nephilingis'' display extreme sexually driven selection. The pedipalps of these genera have become highly derived by evolving enlarged, complex palpal bulbs which break off inside the females' copulatory openings after copulation. The broken palps serve as mating plugs, which makes future matings with a mated female more difficult.<ref name="KuntCoddSchn09">{{cite journal |last1=Kuntner |first1=Matjaž |last2=Coddington |first2=Jonathan A. |last3=Schneider |first3=Jutta M. |year=2009 |title=Intersexual arms race? Genital coevolution in nephilid spiders (Araneae, Nephilidae) |journal=Evolution |volume=63 |issue=6 |pages=1451–1463 |doi=10.1111/j.1558-5646.2009.00634.x |pmid=19492993 |bibcode=2009Evolu..63.1451K |s2cid=6321371}}</ref> These genera of spiders also participate in mate guarding; a mated male will stand guard by his female and chase off other males, thereby increasing the mated male's paternity share. Mated males are castrated in the process of mate plugging, though this may be an advantage in mate guarding, as mated males have been observed to fight more aggressively and win more frequently than virgin males.<ref name="FromSchn05">{{cite journal |last1=Fromhage |first1=Lutz |last2=Schneider |first2=Jutta M. |year=2005 |title=Virgin doves and mated hawks: contest behaviour in a spider |journal=Animal Behaviour |volume=70 |issue=5 |pages=1099–1104 |doi=10.1016/j.anbehav.2005.02.020 |bibcode=2005AnBeh..70.1099F |s2cid=53197549}}</ref> So while the female spiders are still at least potentially polygamous, the males have become monogamous.

==Taxonomy== Up to the late 1980s, following Eugène Simon in 1894, ''Nephila'' and its close relatives were considered to make up the subfamily Nephilinae of the family Araneidae. In 1986, Herbert Walter Levi suggested that ''Nephila'' and ''Nephilengys'' belonged in the family Tetragnathidae, based on the structure of the male palp. Cladistic studies in the 1990s appeared to confirm the relationship between nephilines and Tetragnathidae. Further studies refuted this proposal, but did not resolve the relationship with araneids. In 2006, Matjaž Kuntner removed the group from Araneidae and raised the subfamily Nephilinae to the family Nephilidae. However, molecular phylogenetic studies from 2004 onwards consistently placed nephilids within Araneidae. Accordingly, in 2016, Dimitar Dimitrov et al. returned the group to their traditional position as a subfamily of Araneidae.<ref name="DimiBenaArneGiri16">{{Cite journal |last1=Dimitrov |first1=Dimitar |last2=Benavides |first2=Ligia R. |last3=Arnedo |first3=Miquel A. |last4=Giribet |first4=Gonzalo |last5=Griswold |first5=Charles E. |last6=Scharff |first6=Nikolaj |last7=Hormiga |first7=Gustavo |name-list-style=amp |date=2016 |title=Rounding up the usual suspects: a standard target-gene approach for resolving the interfamilial phylogenetic relationships of ecribellate orb-weaving spiders with a new family-rank classification (Araneae, Araneoidea) |url=http://macroecointern.dk/pdf-reprints/Dimitrov_Cladistics_2016.pdf |journal=Cladistics |volume=33 |issue=3 |pages=221–250 |doi=10.1111/cla.12165 |pmid=34715728 |s2cid=34962403 |doi-access=free |access-date=2016-10-18}}</ref> {{As of|2026|January}}, the group was recognized as a subfamily of Araneidae in the World Spider Catalog.<ref name="NMBE">{{cite web |title=Family: Nephilidae Banks, 1892 |url=http://www.wsc.nmbe.ch/family/62 |access-date=10 January 2026 |website=World Spider Catalog |publisher=Natural History Museum Bern}}</ref>

===Phylogeny=== A 2013 molecular phylogenetic study suggested that the genera of Nephilinae were related as shown in the cladogram below. It was this study that supported the split between ''Nephilengys'' and ''Nephilingis''.<ref name=KuntArneTronLoko13/> {{clade |style=line-height:100% |label1=Nephilinae |1={{clade |1={{clade |1=''Nephilengys'' |2=''Herennia'' }} |2={{clade |1=''Nephila constricta'' + ''Nephila pilipes'' |2={{clade |1=''Nephilingis'' |2={{clade |1=''Clitaetra'' |2=remaining ''Nephila'' species }} }} }} }} }} Although ''Nephila'' appears not to be monophyletic, the authors of the study did not suggest splitting the genus. The phylogeny suggests that male enforced monogamy, via plugging of the female copulatory ducts by males leaving behind their palpal bulbs, is ancestral to the nephilines, and was lost in ''Nephila'' and ''Clitaetra''.<ref name="KuntArneTronLoko13">{{Cite journal |last1=Kuntner |first1=M. |last2=Arnedo |first2=M.A. |last3=Trontelj |first3=P. |last4=Lokovsek |first4=T. |last5=Agnarsson |first5=I. |name-list-style=amp |date=2013 |title=A molecular phylogeny of nephilid spiders: evolutionary history of a model lineage |journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution |volume=69 |issue=3 |pages=961–979 |doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2013.06.008 |pmid=23811436 |bibcode=2013MolPE..69..961K }}</ref>

===Genera===  * ''Clitaetra'' Simon, 1889 – Africa, Madagascar, Sri Lanka * ''Herennia'' Thorell, 1877 – South Asia, Australia * ''Indoetra'' (previously a subgenus of ''Clitaetra'') Kuntner, 2006 – Sri Lanka * ''Nephila'' Leach, 1815 – pantropical * ''Nephilengys'' L. Koch, 1872 – South Asia to north Australia * ''Nephilingis'' Kuntner, 2013 – tropical South America and Africa * ''Trichonephila'' (previously a subgenus of ''Nephila'') Dahl, 1911 – pantropical

==Distribution== The subfamily has a pan-tropical distribution: species of ''Nephilia'', in particular, are found in tropical and subtropical environments in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Australia.

==See also== * Spider families

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Further reading== * {{cite journal | last1 = Kuntner | first1 = M | year = 2006 | title = Phylogenetic systematics of the Gondwanan nephilid spider lineage Clitaetrinae (Araneae, Nephilidae) | url = http://www.nephilidae.com/mk/articles/Kuntner2006Clitaetrinae.pdf | journal = Zoologica Scripta | volume = 35 | issue = 1 | pages = 19–62 | doi = 10.1111/j.1463-6409.2006.00220.x | s2cid = 83783497 | archive-date = 2006-09-28 | access-date = 2006-09-28 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060928164700/http://www.nephilidae.com/mk/articles/Kuntner2006Clitaetrinae.pdf | url-status = dead }} * {{cite journal | last1 = Agnarsson | first1 = I | year = 2003a | title = Spider webs as habitat patches - The distribution of kleptoparasites (''Argyrodes'', Theridiidae) among host webs (''Nephila'', Tetragnathidae) | url = http://www.gwu.edu/~spiders/content/publications/Agnarsson%202003a.pdf | journal = Journal of Arachnology | volume = 31 | issue = 3| pages = 344–349 | doi=10.1636/s02-21| s2cid = 54073105 }} * {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20041012204134/http://arachnophiliac.co.uk/burrow/nephila_of_southern_africa.htm ''Nephila'' of Southern Africa]}}

==External links==  {{Commons category}} {{Araneae}} {{Taxonbar|from1=Q95504580|from2=Q10670}} {{Authority control}}

Category:Spider subfamilies Category:Nephilinae

Nephilinae

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