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 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae |
| Infraorder: | Araneomorphae |
| Family: | Salticidae |
| Subfamily: | Salticinae |
| Genus: | Talavera |
| Species: | T. aequipes
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| Binomial name | |
| Talavera aequipes (O. P-Cambridge, 1871)
| |
| |
| Synonyms | |
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Appearance
editMales 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
editThe species is widely distributed in Europe, but is also found up to Eastern Siberia. It lives mostly on dry meadows.
Name
editThe species name is Latin for "equal feet".
Subspecies
editThe 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
edit- Bellmann, H. (1997). Kosmos-Atlas Spinnentiere Europas. Kosmos. ISBN 3-440-10746-9
Further reading
edit- 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.