Laufeia

Laufeia species are mostly small, hairy, brownish spiders. The chelicera usually has a tooth with two cusps on the rear-facing edge. The male generally has a slightly hardened plate (scutum) on the upper surface of the abdomen. The genitalia vary considerably between species; for example, the male palpal bulb has either a long or short embolus, which may or may not be coiled.[2]

The genus Laufeia was erected by Eugène Simon in 1889 for the type species Laufeia aenea,[1] which had been collected in Yokohama, Japan. Simon did not explain the origin of the genus name.[3] In Norse mythology, Laufeia was the mother of the god Loki.

Four more Laufeia species were known to Andrzej Bohdanowicz and Jerzy Prószyński in 1987; they doubted that three of them belonged in the genus.[4] In 2012, Prószyński and Christa Deeleman-Reinhold split off some Laufeia species into the genera Orcevia and Junxattus, noting the diversity of genital structures. A molecular and morphological study in 2015 showed that the original circumscription of Laufeia constituted a strongly supported clade, and Junxia Zhang and Wayne Maddison restored all the species to Laufeia, arguing that strong sexual selection could produce genital diversity even in closely related species.[2]

• Diagnostic drawings of Laufeia species
• Photograph of a Laufeia species