ARACHNIDA > ARANEAE > Hahniidae

This small family traditionally included seven species in two genera; Antistea (1) and Hahnia (6), but was restructured in the recent checklist (Lavery, 2019). Hahnia has been split with three species reassigned to a new British genus Iberina, and two new species, Mastigusa macrophthalma and Cicurina cicur, have been added after being reassessed and transferred from other families. As a result, the current arrangement now includes nine species in five genera; Antistea (1), Mastigusa (1), Hahnia (3), Iberina (3) and Cicurina (1).

These species construct sheet webs at ground level and, with the exception of Cicurina cicur, are really small spiders, typically no more than a couple of millimetres in size and can easily be mistaken for Linyphiid 'money spiders'. In most cases they are difficult to identify, let alone find, as many are rare. From what I understand, the most likely species to be encountered is probably Antistea elegans, known as the Marsh Combtail Spider, which is a tad larger at around 3mm with a glossy, orange brown carapace and a distinctive dark-grey, chevron marked abdomen. It occurs in a variety of damp habitats such as reedbeds, marshes and margins of woodland ponds, and is one for my 'target list'.

At present though, the only species I've seen and photographed in this family is Cicurina cicur, which is relatively large in comparison with the others, averaging 5-7mm. It is a pretty little spider with a yellow-brown carapace and a distinctly pinkish abdomen. It resembles some of the clubionid 'sac spiders', but differs in having a glossy, hairless carapace. It's primarily a woodland species most likely to be found in dark damp places such as under logs or in moss and leaf-litter. However, it also occurs in caves as well as drains and damp cellars. Their webs include a retreat where the female will sit guarding her egg-sac. Prior to ending up in the Hahniidae family, it was regarded as a Dictynid 'meshweb spider' and before that a Agelenid funnelweb species, so it's certainly been around taxonomically speaking. It has scattered, localised distribution and is listed as 'nationally scarce'.

Updated, Jan.25 (v.3)