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Unidentified Salticidae
Unidentified Salticidae. I am rewriting my original narrative for this spotting, following some sound advice kindly provided as you can see in the comments below. When I first looked at my pictures of this Jumping Spider, I noticed some hairless areas which exposed the underlying colour. and mistakenly jumped to the conclusion that there was some kind of ailment or injury. On looking again, I can see that this little spider was suffering no more than a slight case of baldness. Sorry if I misled anyone. It was also suggested that this spider might belong to the Genus Opisthoncus and I agree entirely, but the age old problem of the amateur arachnologist has arisen again - "I am sure I know what this is, I just can't find confirmation of its presence here." Perhaps a little more digging will uncover it. In the meantime, I will settle for Salticinae sp. cf. Opisthoncus. I have searched the internet several times in the last few weeks since I published this spotting and no luck yet with possible presence in Philippines of Opisthoncus. As if that is not enough, I have been unable to find any other possible matches for my spider. So at this point, I feel I have no choice but to fall in line with "proper science" and settle for Unidentified Salticidae. Surely that can't be wrong. Can it ??
This little Salticid was spotted on foliage growing around the roots of a Mahogany Tree in our back yard.
The following article on Wikipedia lists 32 species for Australia and Papua New Guinea:- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opisthoncu...
Spotted on Mar 8, 2022
Submitted on Jun 1, 2022
4 Comments
Of course I don't mind Leuba Ridgway. I will be happy if you delete the comments. Thank you once again.
You're welcome John B. I might delete your request/comment on my gall spotting, if you don't mind.
Hi Leuba Ridgway, once again I must thank you very much for taking the trouble to look at this for me. I should have realized that it is probably just a loss of hair, revealing the underlying colour - and thanks also for identifying the genus. John B.
John B. Looks like Opisthoncus sp. but I am no expert in spiders and don't actually see anything abnormal with this one. The "swelling" you refer to seems like the posterior part of a hairless cephalothorax.