Margaromma

Margaromma
male M. semirasa from Queensland
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Subkingdom: Eumetazoa
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Infraorder: Araneomorphae
Section: Dionycha
Superfamily: Salticoidea
Family: Salticidae
Subfamily: Euophryinae
Genus: Margaromma
Keyserling, 1882
Type species
Margaromma funestum
Keyserling, 1882
Species

see text

Diversity
12 species

Margaromma is a spider genus of the Salticidae family (jumping spiders). The 12 described species occur mostly in Australia and New Zealand, with several other species on Pacific islands. One species (M. nitidum) is found in Cameroon.

M. spatiosum from Sarawak has not been studied since its first description in 1907. It reaches a body length of about 5 mm. M. spatiosum has a high cephalothorax, with a flattish area just behind the rear eyes. The eye region is black, the rear part dark red, with white bands around the sides. The abdomen is almost circular and truncated at the front. It is brown, much lighter than the cephalothorax, with some red and white hairs. The legs are brown, with darker front legs. Murphy & Murphy (2000) cast some doubt if the species really belongs to Margaromma.[1]

Name

The genus name is probably derived from Ancient Greek words for pearl and eye. There has been some confusion as to the grammatical gender of this genus, with some authors considering it neuter, and others female, resulting in different endings of species names.

Species

M. albertisi and M. marginatum were transferred to genus Zenodorus in 1991.[2]

Footnotes

  1. Murphy & Murphy 2000: 275
  2. Żabka 1991

References

External links

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