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Colossendeidae

Colossendeidae is a family of sea spiders (class Pycnogonida). This family includes more than 100 species distributed among six genera. These sea spiders inhabit the deep sea mostly but are also found in shallower waters, especially in Antarctic and Arctic waters.

Description

Most colossendeids can grow to giant sizes as adults, far larger than any other sea spiders. The largest sea spider, Colossendeis colossea, can reach a leg span of 70 cm, whereas the subfamily Hedgpethiinae includes tiny species with leg span of less than 1 cm. Like most sea spiders, colossendeids usually have four pairs of legs in adults, except for three species, Decolopoda australis, D. qasimi, and Pentacolossendeis reticulata, with five leg pairs, and one species, Dodecolopoda mawsoni, with six leg pairs.

Colossendeids typically have no chelifores, except in the extra-legged species which have robust pincers and 2-segmented scapes. The palps and ovigers are present in both males and females, they are elongated with basal processes located very close to each other. The palps have 8 or 9 segments (historically 9 or 10 as the basal process was once thought to be a segment) while the ovigers have 10 segments. Each oviger ends in a strong terminal claw and compound spines arranged in fields or rows on a well formed strigilis (hook-like distal segments). The proboscis is long, usually longer than the body. The body and legs are usually glabrous. The trunk segments are either segmented (Hedgpethiinae) or fused (Colossendeinae). The legs are very long, and the terminal main claws have no auxiliary claws. gonopores represented on some or all legs.

Taxonomy

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