Talavera aequipes is a small jumping spider that is found in Eurasia. It is very hard to distinguish from several very similar species, but is the most frequent of these spiders in Central Europe. It is small enough to reside comfortably in snail shells of down to 5 mm length during winter, where they also lay their eggs. Sometimes it shares a larger shell with Pellenes tripunctatus, where T. aequipes lives deep inside, and P. tripunctatus is found in the larger opening.

Talavera aequipes
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Infraorder: Araneomorphae
Family: Salticidae
Subfamily: Salticinae
Genus: Talavera
Species:
T. aequipes
Binomial name
Talavera aequipes
Synonyms
  • Salticus aequipes
  • Attus aequipes
  • Euophrys aequipes

Appearance

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Males only reach a body size of two mm, females up to 3 millimetres (0.12 in). The body is covered with brown to yellowish hairs, with striped legs. The female has yellow palps, the male has a yellow mask.

Distribution

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The species is widely distributed in Europe, but is also found up to Eastern Siberia. It lives mostly on dry meadows.

Name

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The species name is Latin for "equal feet".

Subspecies

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The subspecies Talavera aequipes ludio (Simon, 1871) occurs only on Corsica. Earlier synonyms are:

  • Attus ludio Simon, 1871
  • Euophrys ludio Simon, 1876
  • Euophrys aequipes ludio Simon, 1937

References

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  • Bellmann, H. (1997). Kosmos-Atlas Spinnentiere Europas. Kosmos. ISBN 3-440-10746-9

Further reading

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  • Simon, E. (1937): Les arachnides de France. Tome VI. Synopsis générale et catalogue des espèces françaises de l'ordre des Araneae; 5e et derniére partie. Paris, 6: 979-1298.
  • Logunov, D.V. & Kronestedt, T. (2003): A review of the genus Talavera Peckham and Peckham, 1909 (Araneae, Salticidae). Journal of Natural History 37(9): 1091-1154.
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