Spider taxonomy

Spider taxonomy is the part of taxonomy that is concerned with the science of naming, defining and classifying all spiders, members of the Araneae order of the arthropod class Arachnida, which has more than 48,500 described species.^[1] However, there are likely many species that have escaped the human eye as well as specimens stored in collections waiting to be described and classified. It is estimated that only one-third to one half of the total number of existing species have been described.^[2]

Arachnologists currently divide spiders into two suborders with about 129 families.

Due to constant research, with new species being discovered every month and others being recognized as synonyms, the number of species in the families is bound to change and only reflects the present state of knowledge. Nevertheless, the species numbers given here are useful as a guideline – see the table of families at the end of the article.