TYPE SPECIES [B. pococki]      COLOR PHOT [B. pococki] 

Diagnoses of genera of South East Asia: Dull brown, stout to large salticids. Found on shrubs and plants.
General remarks: Species in this group tend to be found in silken cells in low vegetation in the open. They are not very colourful and are sturdy, solid-looking spiders. Hyllus males can be quite large, (c. 16mm), and "aggressive". A helpful entomologist colleague was once seen using a twig, trying to steer a particularly large Hyllus male on the ground, into an open matchbox. This process was working quite well until the spider sighted the matchbox. Then when the matchbox was in range it quite suddenly jumped and lunged at the matchbox. As a result of this entirely unexpected behaviour, it was observed that the entomologist jumped much further than the spider!
Genus: Burmattus. This genus was erected by Proszynski in 1992 to accommodate two species originally described by Thorell in 1895 and some new material. Burmattus species are said to be comparable to Evarcha in appearance. The cephalothorax is high and narrow with the sides almost vertical. It is flat on top for most of its length with the rear part of the thorax very steep. The abdomen is oval, tapering posteriorly. The legs not particularly long, with legs I longest and strongest. For the male of B. pococki, the eye area is brown and the eye surrounds black. The rest of the carapace is orange with white and dark brown hairs. The abdomen is dark grey becoming darker posteriorly. Anteriorly there is a longitudinal band with rows of small orange spots on each side and posteriorly two pairs of white tufts. Legs I are orange brown in colour with the tarsi paler. The other legs are grey orange-brown. The female appears to be a somewhat lighter coloured edition of the male. Distribution: Burmattus is known only from Myanmar, Vietnam and (?Southem) China. Murphy & Murphy 2000: 331. By courtesy of the Authors' and the Malaysian Nature Society.

Copyright © for the page by J. Proszynski, 2000.