Carter's Cave Spider
Nesticus carteri Emerton, 1875
Taxonomy
| Kingdom | Animalia |
|---|---|
| Phylum | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum | Chelicerata |
| Class | Arachnida |
| Order | Araneae |
| Family | Nesticidae |
| Genus | Nesticus |
| Species | Nesticus carteri Emerton, 1875 |
Description
Diagnostic characters
- Ecological class
- Troglophile
- Realm
- Terrestrial
Distribution
Range
Known from 27 counties across five states.
Continent
North America
Country
United States
States and provinces
Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia
Counties
- Indiana
- Crawford, Monroe, Morgan, Owen
- Kentucky
- Carter, Edmonson, Elliott, Estill, Jackson, Jessamine, Lee, Powell, Pulaski, Rockcastle, Wayne
- Tennessee
- Claiborne, Hamblen, Hamilton, Hancock, Sullivan, Union
- Virginia
- Lee, Rockbridge, Scott, Smyth, Tazewell
- West Virginia
- Greenbrier
Conservation and management
NatureServe
GNR Unranked
National ranks
- United States
- NNR
Subnational ranks
- Indiana
- S1 Critically Imperiled
- West Virginia
- S3 Vulnerable
State and federal status
Not listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act
References
- Banta, A.M. 1907. The fauna of Mayfield's Cave. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 67: 1–114. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/60987.
- Barr, T.C., Jr. 1965. The Pseudanophthalmus of the Appalachian Valley (Coleoptera: Carabidae). The American Midland Naturalist 73: 41–72. doi:10.2307/2423320
- Carver, L.M., Perlaky, P., Cressler, A. & Zigler, K.S. 2016. Reproductive seasonality in Nesticus (Araneae: Nesticidae) cave spiders. PLOS One 11: e0156751. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0156751
- Gertsch, W.J. 1984. The spider family Nesticidae (Araneae) in North America, Central America and the West Indies. Texas Memorial Museum Bulletin 31: 1–91.
- Harker, D.F., Jr. & Barr, T.C., Jr. 1979. Caves and associated fauna of Eastern Kentucky, Volume 3. Kentucky Nature Preserves Commission, Frankfurt, Kentucky, USA. 130 pp.
- Hedin, M.C. 1997. Speciational history in a diverse clade of habitat-specialized spiders (Araneae: Nesticidae: Nesticus): inferences from geographic-based sampling. Evolution 51: 1929–1945. doi:10.1111/j.1558-5646.1997.tb05115.x
- Nicholas, G. 1960. Checklist of macroscopic troglobitic organisms of the United States. The American Midland Naturalist 64: 123–160. doi:10.2307/2422897
- Trumbore, L.E., Reynolds, R.J., Thomas, S.C., Orndorff, W., Cramphorn, B., Gladstone, N.S., Harden, C.W., Lewis, J.J., Milne, M.A., Ober, K.A., Shear, W.A., Stephen, C.D.R. & Zigler, K.S. 2024. Cave biodiversity of Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 86: 13–24. doi:10.4311/2022LSC0116
How to cite this account
Nesticus carteri Emerton, 1875. Cave Biology Data Portal, account SP-1855. https://cavebiology.org/species/nesticus-carteri/ (accessed 7 September 2026).
Data sources and funding are listed in the Acknowledgments.
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