Color phot: Chrysilla lauta [Chrysilla versicolor = Phintella ]
Type species[ lauta ] [ delicata ] ["kolosvaryi"][Chrysilla versicolor = Phintella ] [ Ch. sp. from Bhutan]
Diagnoses of genera of South East Asia: 51.2 Square headed salticids with long thin, colourful abdomens. Found on shrubs and plants. General remarks: This section includes some of the commoner salticids likely to be seen on foliage in rain forest or garden. They are often brightly coloured and immediately attract attention. Their large, dark, anterior median eyes are noticed immediately. The long thin bodies, long legs and long chelicerae of males are characteristic. Genera for which little information is available or are possibly rare are placed here tentatively and preceded by a "?".
Genus: Chrysilla (3-4; 4-9). See Koh, p. 103. As a result of
recent work, Chrysilla now has very few species, most having been transferred
to Phintella (p. 352). One of the remaining species, C. lauta,
has a male with the characteristic, long thin body and carapace shape of a number
of rain forest salticid genera. The carapace is a fairly broad oval, longer
than wide, but with a pronounced notch near the pedicel. The cephalus is flat
and relatively small, with the long thorax and sides sloping away steadily to
the margin. The carapace is covered in dense orange-red hairs. Straight across
the front and back of the cephalus between the eyes there is a narrow band of
shiny bluish-white, iridescent hairs. There is a narrow band of similar hairs
along the margin. Although the chelicerae are robust and diverge, they do not
project forward. The abdomen is long, narrow and tubular, rounded anteriorly
and tapering very gradually to a bluntish posterior. There is a long scutum
which, except near the shoulders and near the spinnerets, entirely covers the
dorsal side of the abdomen. It is dark brown in colour and covered with dense,
bronze coloured hairs. The legs are long, slender and, except for the ventral
spines on the tibiae and metatarsi of leg I, are not particularly spiny. Save
for legs I and metatarsi IV which are brown, the remaining segments are uniformly
brownish-yellow.
Distribution: Chrysilla is known from India, Myanmar, Vietnam,
China, P. Malaysia, Singapore, Sumatra and Australia.
Murphy & Murphy 2000: 298. By courtesy of the Authors' and the Malaysian
Nature Society.
Copyright © for the page by J. Proszynski, 1999.