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 the Americas (Cryptocellus and Pseudocellus) from Brazil to southern Texas, where they inhabit either leaf-litter or caves.

There are between 50 – 60 species of ricinuleids, all in one family (Ricinoididae). They occur in the rainforests of western and central Africa and in caves and forests from Texas to Peru. Fossil ricinuleids date back to the Carboniferous of Euramerica and the Cretaceous Burmese Amber.

After the breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana millions of years ago members of a unique group of arachnids became separated. Today these spider-like critters hide in the corners of only tropical Africa and the Americas. Anyone could identify a spider, scorpion or even a tick.

This is a list of the described species of Ricinulei (hooded tickspiders). The data is taken from the World Ricinulei Catalog. [1]

The order Ricinulei is a group of arachnids known as hooded tickspiders, though they are not true spiders. Like most arachnids, they are predatory, eating small arthropods. In older works they are sometimes referred to as Podogona.

The Ricinulei Thorell, 1876, or “hooded tick-spiders,” are among the least studied arachnid orders. Knowledge of ricinuleid diversity has been slow to accumulate because these arachnids are underrepresented in biological collections.

Approximately 2% of the world's Arachnida and 3% of the Myriapoda live in Amazonia. However, Ricinulei represent 28%, Schizomida and Scolopendromorpha 9%, and Pauropoda more than 7% of species known worldwide in the respective taxa (Table 1).

Dec 23, 2020 · Statistical analyses are performed on extant and fossil ricinuleids to determine how their tubercles change throughout ontogeny, culminating in the recovery of a new ontogenetically stable diagnostic character: the tubercle coefficient (a measure of the size of the tubercles relative to body size).

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 the Americas as far north as Texas. As of 2021, 91 extant species of ricinuleids have been described worldwide, all in the single family Ricinoididae.

A new extinct family of the arachnid order Ricinulei in Cretaceous Burmese (Kachin) amber, with notes on the order Trigonotarbida and on sperm transfer in Arachnida.