Murphy & Murphy 2000:
348. Diagnoses of genera of South East Asia: Light or colourful,
sometimes iridescent salticids. Shrubs, plants, especially broad leaved.
General remarks: In the field, plants with large green leaves, such as
ginger, are often favoured by salticids, particularly colourful species. Some
are clothed with dense, coloured, iridescent hairs which makes them particularly
attractive and conspicuous. They are often to be seen wandering about or sunning
themselves on top of the leaves and sometimes to be found resting or in a cell
under a leaf. Salticids often build a retreat between and attached to two closely
overlapping leaves. With care and a suitably placed sweep net, one can often
collect the owner.
Genus: Colyttus. This is a very small genus containing only two
species. The type species, C. bilineatus, was described by Thorell in
1891 but no drawings existed until Proszynski drew the male palp in 1984. A
second species, C. lehtineni from Vietnam, was described by Zabka in
1985. The cephalothorax is moderately high, flat on top with the sides and rear
almost vertical. In plan the carapace is longer than broad and U-shaped. The
eye field is orange brown with some lighter spots and the eye surrounds black.
The rest of the carapace is orange becoming brown near the margin on each side.
The abdomen is an almost symmetric oval. It is whitish-yellow with four small,
orange-grey sigilla. The long legs are sturdy and carry numerous spines, many
of which are quite strong. The front legs are grey-brown in colour and the other
legs rather lighter.
Distribution: Colyttus is known from P. Malaysia, Sumatra, Moluccas,
Vietnam and China. Murphy
& Murphy 2000: 348. By courtesy of the Authors' and the Malaysian Nature
Society.
Copyright © for the page by J. Proszynski, 2000.