Pholcoidea

The Pholcoidea or pholcoids are a superfamily of araneomorph spiders. The group has been circumscribed to contain the following three families:


 * Diguetidae
 * Pholcidae
 * Plectreuridae

Phylogeny
A phylogenetic study based on morphology has shown weak support for the monophyly of the group, as opposed to an earlier hypothesis that two of the families, Diguetidae and Plectreuridae, should be separated from the third in a larger superfamily, Sicarioidea. Pholcoid families are placed in the Haplogynae, spiders with simpler copulatory structures than other araneomorphs. The internal phylogeny of the group is shown in the following cladogram: