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Cryptachaea
2026-11-15 14:08:46 · The Daily Ledger
Cryptachaea is a genus of spiders in the Theridiidae (tangle web spider) family.
Taxonomy
Many species in this genus used to reside in Achaearanea, which received a major revision in 2008. The genus was originally established as a subgenus of Theridion.

Distribution
This is mostly a New World genus, with many species in South America. One species is cosmopolitan, one species occurs in the whole Palearctic, another only in China. C. veruculata was introduced to Europe from New Zealand.

Name
The genus name is a combination of Achaea, the old name of the genus Achaearanea, and Ancient Greek κρυπτός "hidden". The genus is called Iwama-himegumo zoku in Japanese.

Species
Cryptachaea acoreensis (Berland, 1932) — Cosmopolitan
Cryptachaea alacris (Keyserling, 1884) — Colombia, Venezuela
Cryptachaea altiventer (Keyserling, 1884) — Brazil
Cryptachaea amazonas Buckup, Marques & Rodrigues, 2012
Cryptachaea ambera (Levi, 1963) — USA
Cryptachaea analista (Levi, 1963) — Brazil
Cryptachaea anastema (Levi, 1963) — Venezuela
Cryptachaea azteca (Chamberlin & Ivie, 1936) — Mexico
Cryptachaea banosensis (Levi, 1963) — Ecuador
Cryptachaea barra (Levi, 1963) — Brazil
Cryptachaea bellula (Keyserling, 1891) — Brazil
Cryptachaea blattea (Urquhart, 1886) — cosmopolitan
Cryptachaea caliensis (Levi, 1963) — Colombia, Ecuador
Cryptachaea canionis (Chamberlin & Gertsch, 1929) — USA
Cryptachaea caqueza (Levi, 1963) — Colombia
Cryptachaea chilensis (Levi, 1963) — Chile
Cryptachaea chiricahua (Levi, 1955) — USA
Cryptachaea cinnabarina (Levi, 1963) — Brazil
Cryptachaea diamantina (Levi, 1963) — Brazil
Cryptachaea dromedariformis (Roewer, 1942) — Ecuador, Peru
Cryptachaea eramus (Levi, 1963) — Brazil
Cryptachaea fresno (Levi, 1955) — USA
Cryptachaea gigantea (Keyserling, 1884) — Peru
Cryptachaea gigantipes (Keyserling, 1890) — Australia, New Zealand
Cryptachaea hirta (Taczanowski, 1873) — Panama to Argentina
Cryptachaea ingijonathorum Buckup, Marques & Rodrigues, 2012
Cryptachaea inops (Levi, 1963) — Brazil, Guyana
Cryptachaea insulsa (Gertsch & Mulaik, 1936) — USA, Mexico
Cryptachaea isana (Levi, 1963) — Brazil
Cryptachaea jequirituba (Levi, 1963) — Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina
Cryptachaea kaspi (Levi, 1963) — Peru
Cryptachaea koepckei (Levi, 1963) — Peru
Cryptachaea lota (Levi, 1963) — Chile
Cryptachaea manzanillo (Levi, 1959) — Mexico
Cryptachaea maraca (Buckup & Marques, 1991) — Brazil
Cryptachaea maxima (Keyserling, 1891) — Brazil
Cryptachaea meraukensis (Chrysanthus, 1963) — New Guinea
Cryptachaea migrans (Keyserling, 1884) — Venezuela to Peru, Brazil
Cryptachaea milagro (Levi, 1963) — Ecuador
Cryptachaea maldonado Buckup, Marques & Rodrigues, 2012
Cryptachaea nayaritensis (Levi, 1959) — Mexico
Cryptachaea oblivia (O. P.-Cambridge, 1896) — Costa Rica, Panama
Cryptachaea orana (Levi, 1963) — Ecuador
Cryptachaea pallipera (Levi, 1963) — Brazil
Cryptachaea parana (Levi, 1963) — Paraguay
Cryptachaea passiva (Keyserling, 1891) — Brazil
Cryptachaea pilaton (Levi, 1963) — Ecuador
Cryptachaea pinguis (Keyserling, 1886) — Brazil, Uruguay
Cryptachaea porteri (Banks, 1896) — USA to Panama, West Indies
Cryptachaea projectivulva (Yoshida, 2001) — Japan
Cryptachaea pura (O. P.-Cambridge, 1894) — Mexico
Cryptachaea pusillana (Roewer, 1942) — French Guiana
Cryptachaea pydanieli (Buckup & Marques, 1991) — Brazil
Cryptachaea rafaeli (Buckup & Marques, 1991) — Brazil
Cryptachaea rapa (Levi, 1963) — Paraguay
Cryptachaea rioensis (Levi, 1963) — Brazil
Cryptachaea riparia (Blackwall, 1834) — Palearctic
Cryptachaea rostra (Zhu & Zhang, 1992) — China
Cryptachaea rostrata (O. P.-Cambridge, 1896) — Mexico to Venezuela
Cryptachaea rupicola (Emerton, 1882) — USA, Canada
Cryptachaea schneirlai (Levi, 1959) — Panama
Cryptachaea schraderorum (Levi, 1959) — Costa Rica
Cryptachaea serenoae (Gertsch & Archer, 1942) — USA
Cryptachaea sicki (Levi, 1963) — Brazil
Cryptachaea taeniata (Keyserling, 1884) — Guatemala to Peru
Cryptachaea tovarensis (Levi, 1963) — Venezuela
Cryptachaea trinidensis (Levi, 1959) — Trinidad, Peru
Cryptachaea uviana (Levi, 1963) — Peru