Large nesticids (3 – 7 mm)

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Small nesticids (< 3 mm)

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Opisthosoma dorsally without pattern, light greyish; body length 2.0-2.4 mm; posterior eye row nearly strait, PME a little bit closer to PLE than to each other; male pedipalp with small paracymbium, distally dentate, parallel to cymbium; conductor simple, distally pointed; terminal apophysis lacking; epigynal plate with anterior pitted knob, copulatory opening at posterior margin of the epigynal plate; receptacula long and narrow (one cosmopolitan species, in Spain and in greenhouses)

Eidmannella

Opisthosoma unicolorous greyish or with longitudinal rows of ill-defined patches; legs unicolourous in males, but may be annulated in females; body length 2.1 – 2.2 mm; eyes well developed, AME distinctly the smallest; colulus large, long triangular, with many hairs, male palpal tibia as long as wide. In the litter of forests (one species from South-East Asia, introduced to Europe)

Nesticella

Eyeless; male pedipalpus with very long embolus, thin, with simple apex; paracymbium without modifications, terminal apophysis bulbous, distal part of conductor bipartite, pointed; epigynal plate swollen; vulva ducts very long, coiled; legs very long, leg I 10 x length of prosoma (one species in Montenegro)

Typhlonesticus

Eyes well developed, reduced or absent; other parameters different

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Note: the delimitations of Nesticus, Carpathonesticus and Aituaria are difficult and some species may currently be placed in the wrong genus.

Male pedipalpus with distally entire paracymbium, two unequal tegular apophyses, terminal apophysis long and tapering; distal part of conductor tripartite, embolus long, thin, with modified apex; epigynal plate posteriorly wide, receptacula large, branched (many species in Europe)

Nesticus

Different

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Male pedipalpus with tegular apophysis reduced to a small hook, distal part of the conductor bipartite, terminal apophysis compact and small, embolus short and thick, with simple apex, embolus round in section, embolic apex simple; paracymbium with simple pointed tip; central modification of the paracymbium barbed or teeth; epigyne plate anteriorly wide, receptaculum subglobular (many species in Eastern Europe)

Carpathonesticus

Embolus flat in section, embolic apex modified; apex of paracymbium wide blade, more pointed or less sharply transformed to point; central modification of the paracymbium a rounded projection or tooth (2 species in Russia)

Aituaria