Int
'
l J. Mol. Zoo., 2013, Vol.3, No.6, 20
-
23
http://ijmz.sophiapublisher.com
22
Figure 3 ♂
Saitis leighii
,
A: General habitus; B and C:
Arrangement of eyes; D: Unidentant cheliceral teeth (t); E:
Pedipalp; F: Sternum
the patellae and most of the tibiae of the first two pairs
bright orange-red. Male
Philaeus chrysops
identified
in present study resemble individuals described above
especially in the color pattern but unfortunately no
adult females were collected in the study period this
may be due to their maturation in late summer.
Regarding
Plexippus paykulli
,
this species is native to
south East Asia but has spread to other parts of the
world (Komnenov, 2005).
Plexippus paykulli
is
cosmopolitan in distribution, with a high carapace,
and are covered with short greyish hairs. The female
identified in present study was brownish grey, the
carapace being darker especially around the eyes, with
a broad tan stripe that extends onto the abdomen
where it breaks into two chevrons. Female morphology
of this species which collected in Mergasor is similar
with a wide spread specimen observed in numerous
localities of Iran (Logunov, 2004).
The black and white strip on the dorsal surface is a
distinguishable feature of
Saitis leighii
,
which
collected in Mergasor region, and their pedipalps less
complex than
Philaeus chrysops.
This species has
been associated recently with the genus
Saitis
Simon
1876 (
Prószyński, 2009a; 2009c; Platnick, 2011;
Metzner, 2012).
3
Conclusions
Jumping spiders were observed in many habitats in
Mergasor locality; on ground, under stone, on
branches and between grasses. Three species belong to
family Salticidae were identified from the study area,
Philaeus chrysops
,
Plexippus paykulli
and
Saitis
leighii
respectively.
4
Materials and Methods
4.1
Study Area
The present study is based on the species which
were collected from the Mergasor locality which is
located in the north eastern of Erbil governorate/Iraq
(
Figure 4). Mergasor (44
°
30
ʹ E, 36
°
45
ʹ N) is 1158
meter above the sea level, maximum temperature in
summer is 42
℃
and minimum temperature in winter
is
-
11
℃
(
Joint Humanitarian Information Center, 2004).
Figure 4 Site of spiders colle
4.2
Spider Collection
Spiders were collected during May through July 2012
from different parts of Mergasor locality by visually
searching and collected with beating sheet and hand
collecting methods from branches, on the ground
and under stones and preserved in holding tubes
which contain 75% ethanol by wet preservation
method(Crews and Harvey, 2011).