A REVISION OF THE FUNNELWEB MYGALOMORPH SPIDER SUBFAMILY ISCHNOTHELINAE (ARANEAE, DIPLURIDAE)

The tropical diplurid spider subfamily Ischnothelinae is revised for t he first time. The monophyly of this subfamily is supported by six put ative synapomorphies: an elongate cymbial apophysis, two rows of cheli ceral teeth, a procurved transverse fovea, collariform trichobothrial bases, fused silk spigots, and long, tapering, pseudosegmented termina l posterior lateral spinneret articles. Five genera are recognized: Is chnothele Ausserer (with 11 species in South America, Central America, and the Antilles), Andethele, new genus (with 3 species in the Andes Mountains of Peru), Lathrothele Benoit (with 4 species in Africa), Ind othele, new genus (with 4 species in India and Sri Lanka), and Thelech oris Karsch (with 2 species in Africa and Madagascar). Phylogenies (ba sed on cladistic analyses using two different sets of outgroups), biog eographic hypotheses, a key, diagnoses, descriptions, tables of quanti tative character values, illustrations, analyses of variation, natural history information, locality records, and distribution maps are pres ented for the 24 recognized species. The cladistic analyses provide st rong support for the monophyly of the Old World branch of the subfamil y, the genera Andethele and Thelechoris, and the Greater Antillean and South American (goloboffi) clades of Ischnothele, and weaker or ambig uous support for the monophyly of Ischnothele, Lathrothele, and Indoth ele. Ten species are newly described: Ischnothele jeremie, I. garcia, I. huambisa, and I. goloboffi; Andethele lucma, A. huanca, and A. tarm a; Indothele lanka, I. rothi, and I. mala. Fourteen specific names are newly synonymized: Ischnothele ecuadorensis Schmidt with Ischnothele digitata (O. P.-Cambridge); Entomothele pusilla Simon, Thelechoris zeb rina Simon, Thelechoris funesta Fischel, Thelechoris obtusa Fischel, a nd Ischnothele sexpunctata Bucherl, da Costa, and Lucas with Ischnothe le caudata Ausserer; Ischnothele siemensi F. O. P.-Cambridge with Isch nothele guianensis (Walckenaer); Ischnothele indigens Vellard, Ischnot hele zorodes Mello-Leitao, Ischnothele campestris Schiapelli and Gersc hman, Ischnothele affinis Schiapelli and Gerschman, and ischnothele cr anwelli Gerschman and Schiapelli with Ischnathele annulata Tullgren; L athrothele marmoratus Benoit with Lathrothele grabensis Benoit; and Th elechoris karschi Bosenberg and Lent with Thelechoris striatipes (Simo n). Several species previously placed in ischnotheline genera are not ischnothelines: Ischnothele annectens (Bertkau), Ischnothele simplicat a Saito, Ischnothele strandi Spassky, Ischnothele lineata (Karsch), Is chnothele indicola Tikader, and Thelechoris australis Purcell. Evidenc e is presented that suggests that Ischnothele longicauda and Lathrothe le grabensis may each consist of more than one species and that Thelec horis rutenbergi and T. striatipes may be conspecific.