Aelurillus
Encyclopedia
Aelurillus is a genus
of the spider
family Salticidae (jumping spider
s).
s (myrmecophagy
).
A Southeast Asia
n Aelurillus species has been observed to jump around 30-40 times its body length straight onto the back of a large gnaphosid spider and kill it.
They like hot, dry, stony places or small bare open areas with dead twigs or similar amongst low vegetation.
, with a few species known from India (A. improvisus, A. minimontanus) and Sri Lanka (A. kronestedti, A. quadrimaculatus). Aelurillus subfestivus is found in Japan
.
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of the spider
Spider
Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...
family Salticidae (jumping spider
Jumping spider
The jumping spider family contains more than 500 described genera and about 5,000 described species, making it the largest family of spiders with about 13% of all species. Jumping spiders have some of the best vision among invertebrates and use it in courtship, hunting and navigation...
s).
Description
Aelurillus are typically about 7 mm long in females, and up to five mm in males. They are stout, squat-shaped and rather furry, with females often uniformly mottled sandy brown, while males are often black, sometimes with a pattern and with light, annulated legs.Habits
Spiders in this genus mainly catch and feed on antAnt
Ants are social insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants. More than...
s (myrmecophagy
Myrmecophagy
Myrmecophagy is a feeding behavior defined by the consumption of termites or ants, particularly in those animal species whose diets are largely or exclusively composed of said insect types....
).
A Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
n Aelurillus species has been observed to jump around 30-40 times its body length straight onto the back of a large gnaphosid spider and kill it.
They like hot, dry, stony places or small bare open areas with dead twigs or similar amongst low vegetation.
Distribution
Aelurillus occurs in the Palaearctic and AfricaAfrica
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, with a few species known from India (A. improvisus, A. minimontanus) and Sri Lanka (A. kronestedti, A. quadrimaculatus). Aelurillus subfestivus is found in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
Species
- Aelurillus aeruginosusAelurillus aeruginosusAelurillus aeruginosus is a jumping spider that feeds on ants.-Distribution:A. aeruginosus occurs in the Mediterranean, for example in Sicily, Spain and the Levant .-External links:**...
(Simon, 1871) — Mediterranean - Aelurillus afghanus Azarkina, 2006 — AfghanistanAfghanistanAfghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
- Aelurillus andreevae Nenilin, 1984 — Central AsiaCentral AsiaCentral Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
- Aelurillus angularis Prószynski, 2000 — IsraelIsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
- Aelurillus ater (Kroneberg, 1875) — Central Asia
- Aelurillus balearus Azarkina, 2006 — Canary IslandsCanary IslandsThe Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
, Balearic IslandsBalearic IslandsThe Balearic Islands are an archipelago of Spain in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula.The four largest islands are: Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera. The archipelago forms an autonomous community and a province of Spain with Palma as the capital... - Aelurillus basseleti (Lucas, 1846) — AlgeriaAlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
, TunisiaTunisiaTunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area... - Aelurillus blandus (Simon, 1871) — GreeceGreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, CreteCreteCrete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits... - Aelurillus bokerinus Prószynski, 2003 — Israel
- Aelurillus bosmansi Azarkina, 2006 — SpainSpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
- Aelurillus brutus Wesolowska, 1996 — TurkmenistanTurkmenistanTurkmenistan , formerly also known as Turkmenia is one of the Turkic states in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic . Turkmenistan is one of the six independent Turkic states...
, KazakhstanKazakhstanKazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe... - Aelurillus catherinae Prószynski, 2000 — EgyptEgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
- Aelurillus catus Simon, 1886 — SenegalSenegalSenegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
- Aelurillus cognatus (O. P.-Cambridge, 1872) — LebanonLebanonLebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
- Aelurillus concolor Kulczynski, 1901 — Macedonia, IranIranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, Central Asia - Aelurillus conveniens (O. P.-Cambridge, 1872) — Egypt, Israel, SyriaSyriaSyria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
- Aelurillus cretensis Azarkina, 2002 — Crete
- Aelurillus cristatopalpus Simon, 1902 — South AfricaSouth AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
- Aelurillus cypriotus Azarkina, 2006 — CyprusCyprusCyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
- Aelurillus dorthesi (AudouinJean Victoire Audouinthumb|Victor AudouinJean Victoire Audouin , sometimes Victor Audouin, was a French naturalist, an entomologist, ornithologist and malacologist.Audouin was born in Paris and studied medicine...
, 1826) — Egypt - Aelurillus dubatolovi Azarkina, 2003 — Central Asia
- Aelurillus faragallai Prószynski, 1993 — Saudi ArabiaSaudi ArabiaThe Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
, YemenYemenThe Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east.... - Aelurillus gershomi Prószynski, 2000 — Israel
- Aelurillus guecki Metzner, 1999 — Greece
- Aelurillus helvenacius Logunov, 1993 — MongoliaMongoliaMongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
- Aelurillus hirtipes Denis, 1960 — North AfricaNorth AfricaNorth Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
- Aelurillus improvisus Azarkina, 2002 — India
- Aelurillus jerusalemicus Prószynski, 2000 — Israel
- Aelurillus kochi RoewerCarl Friedrich RoewerCarl Friedrich Roewer was a German arachnologist. He concentrated on harvestmen, where he described almost a third of today's known species, but also almost 700 taxa of spiders and numerous Solifugae....
, 1951 — Greece, Israel, Syria - Aelurillus kopetdaghi Wesolowska, 1996 — Turkmenistan
- Aelurillus kronestedti Azarkina, 2004 — Sri LankaSri LankaSri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
- Aelurillus laniger Logunov & Marusik, 2000 — Macedonia, Kazakhstan
- Aelurillus latebricola Spassky, 1941 — TajikistanTajikistanTajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....
- Aelurillus leipoldae (Metzner, 1999) — Crete
- Aelurillus logunovi Azarkina, 2004 — Afghanistan, PakistanPakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
- Aelurillus lopadusae Cantarella, 1983 — ItalyItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Algeria - Aelurillus lucasi Roewer, 1951 — Canary IslandsCanary IslandsThe Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
, Salvages - Aelurillus luctuosus (Lucas, 1846) — Mediterranean to Turkmenistan
- Aelurillus lutosus (Tyschchenko, 1965) — Kazakhstan, KyrgyzstanKyrgyzstanKyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states . Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east...
- Aelurillus marusiki Azarkina, 2002 — Iran
- Aelurillus minimontanus Azarkina, 2002 — IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
- Aelurillus mirabilis Wesolowska, 2006 — NamibiaNamibiaNamibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
- Aelurillus m-nigrum Kulczynski, 1891 — PalearcticPalearcticThe Palearctic or Palaearctic is one of the eight ecozones dividing the Earth's surface.Physically, the Palearctic is the largest ecozone...
- Aelurillus monardi (Lucas, 1846) — Mediterranean
- Aelurillus muganicus Dunin, 1984 — Azerbaijan
- Aelurillus nabataeus Prószynski, 2003 — Israel
- Aelurillus nenilini Azarkina, 2002 — Turkmenistan, UzbekistanUzbekistanUzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
, Kazakhstan - Aelurillus numidicus (Lucas, 1846) — Algeria
- Aelurillus plumipes (Thorell, 1875) — Algeria, Tunisia
- Aelurillus politiventris (O. P.-Cambridge, 1872) — Greece to Israel
- Aelurillus quadrimaculatus Simon, 1889 — India, Sri Lanka
- Aelurillus reconditus Wesolowska & van Harten, 1994 — Yemen
- Aelurillus rugatus (Bösenberg & Lenz, 1895) — TanzaniaTanzaniaThe United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
- Aelurillus sahariensis Berland & Millot, 1941 — MaliMaliMali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
- Aelurillus schembrii Cantarella, 1982 — SicilySicilySicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
, MaltaMaltaMalta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in... - Aelurillus simoni (Lebert, 1877) — SwitzerlandSwitzerlandSwitzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
- Aelurillus simplex (Herman, 1879) — HungaryHungaryHungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
- Aelurillus spinicrus (Simon, 1871) — MoroccoMoroccoMorocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
- Aelurillus stanislawi (Prószynski, 1999) — Israel, Syria, EthiopiaEthiopiaEthiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
- Aelurillus steinmetzi Metzner, 1999 — Greece
- Aelurillus steliosi Dobroruka, 2002 — Crete
- Aelurillus subaffinis Caporiacco, 1947 — Ethiopia
- Aelurillus subfestivus Saito, 1934 — Japan
- Aelurillus tumidulus Wesolowska & Tomasiewicz, 2008 — Ethiopia
- Aelurillus unitibialis Azarkina, 2002 — Iran
- Aelurillus v-insignitusAelurillus v-insignitusAelurillus v-insignitus is a species of jumping spider.-Appearance:The male has v-shaped rows of hairs on its head and a pronounced white median stripe on its abdomen. The female is mottled brown. The spider can reach a length of .-Name:...
(Clerck, 1757) — Palearctic- Aelurillus v-insignitus morulus (Simon, 1937) — FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
- Aelurillus v-insignitus obsoletus Kulczynski, 1891 — Eastern Europe
- Aelurillus v-insignitus morulus (Simon, 1937) — France