Int
'
l J. Mol. Zoo., 2013, Vol.3, No.6, 20
-
23
http://ijmz.sophiapublisher.com
20
A Review Open Access
First Record of Three Jumping Spiders (
Araneae
:
Salticidae
)
in Mergasor
(
Erbil-Iraq)
Samir Mirkhan Ahmed
1
,
Sherwan Taeeb Ahmed
2
1.
Mergasor hospital, Ministry of Health, Kurdistan region, Erbil, Iraq
2.
Department of Biology, College of Science, University of Salahaddin, Kurdistan region, Erbil, Iraq
Corresponding authors email:
sherwan58@gmail.com
;
Authors
Int'l J. Mol. Zoo., 2013, Vol.3, No.6 doi: 10.5376/ijmz.2013.03.0006
Received: 26 Mar., 2013
Accepted: 7 Apr., 2013
Published: 27 Apr., 2013
Copyright: © 2013, Ahmed. This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article:
Ahmed, 2013, First Record of Three Jumping Spiders (
Araneae
:
Salticidae
)
in Mergasor (Erbil-Iraq), Int'l J. Mol. Zoo., Vol.3, No.6, 20
-
23
(
doi: 10.5376/ijmz.
2013. 03.0006)
Abstract
During May through July 2012 many habitats in Mergasor locality were investigated for jumping spiders. Three species
and three genera were recorded belonging to the family
Salticidae
which are
Philaeus chrysops
,
Plexippus paykulli
and
Saitis leighii
.
Philaeus chrysops
had height population in this area but further investigations are needed to clarify the distribution of other species
of
Salticidae
in this region.
Keywords
Jumping spider;
Salticidae
;
Philaeus
;
Plexippus
;
Saitis
Introduction
The
Salticidae
of Minor Asia and the Near East
remain poorly studied (Logunov, 2009) and the
arachnological investigations is still poor in Iraq.
Family
Salticidae
which is known as jumping spiders
are geographically cosmopolitan in distribution contains
more than 500 described genera and about 5 000
described species (Maddison et al.
,
2008)
making it the
largest family of spiders with about 13% of all species.
Salticidae
are among the easiest to distinguish from
similar spider families because of the shape of the
cephalothorax and their eye patterns (Ubick et al.,
2005).
The families closest to
Salticidae
in general
appearance are the
Corinnidae
(
distinguished also by
prominent spines on the back four legs), the
Oxyopidae
(
distinguished by very prominent spines on
all legs), and the
Thomisidae
(
the crab spiders,
distinguished by their front four legs, which are very
long and powerful), none of these families however,
have eyes that resemble those of the
Salticidae
(
Metzner, 2012). Conversely, the legs of jumping
spiders are not covered with any very prominent
spines. Their front four legs generally are larger than
the hind four, but not as dramatically so as those of the
crab spiders (Peng et al., 2002).
1
Results
In the present study a total of 26 male and female
spiders were collected, three species and three genera
belong to family
Salticidae
were identified. Characters
of identified species, were as follow: Family
Salticidae
(
Blackwall, 1841) (Jumping spiders).
Key to family: Family
Salticidae
identified by
possessing eight eyes that anterior median eyes clearly
larger than other eyes, field of eyes quadrangular in
dorsal view (Metzner, 2012).The posterior eyes of
Salticidae
may be difficult to recognize, due to their
smallness, but they are always present. Genus:
Philaeus
(
Thorell, 1869),
Philaeus chrysops
(
Poda, 1761).
Diagnosis: Male, body length about 8mm, normal
spider-like habitus (no ant-like or beetle-like)with
orange habitus coloration, unidentant cheliceral teeth.
The ratio of length: width of sternum is greater than
2:1,
and first legs are longer than the second legs.
Striking white haired pedipalps, the spinnerets are
long and hairy at the tips and equal in size and not
observe from dorsal view (Figure 1). No females of
this spider were collected.
Genus:
Plexippus
(
Koch 1846).
Plexippus paykulli
(
Audouin 1825).
Diagnosis: Female, body length about 7 mm. Normal
spiders like habitus with dark and bright vertical strips
coloration, unidentant cheliceral teeth, sternum length: