Ricinulei

Common card · No. 311194

Ricinulei is a small order of arachnids. Like most arachnids, they are predatory; eating small arthropods. They occur today in west-central Africa (Ricinoides, and see text) and the Americas (Cryptocellus and Pseudocellus) from Brazil to southern Texas, where they inhabit either leaf-litter or caves. As of 2022, 103 extant species of ricinuleids have been described worldwide, all in the single family Ricinoididae. In academic literature they are occasionally referred to as hooded tick-spiders. In addition to the three living genera, Ricinulei has a fossil-record spanning over 300 million years, including fossils from the Late Carboniferous of Euramerica and the Cretaceous Burmese amber.

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