Diagnoses of genera of South East Asia: Long salticids, some flattish. Found on warm walls, rocks and tree trunks in the open. Genus: Plexippus. See also Koh, pp. 113-114. This is a widespread, largely tropical, genus. Plexippus paykulli must rank alongside Heteropoda venatoria as being the best known and the most outstanding arachnological fellow travellers. Most countries with sizeable ports or international airports will have been paid a visit at some time or other. In contrast to the rather sinister looking H. venatoria, the male P. paykulli is a most handsome jumping spider. The oblong carapace is longer than wide, truncated posteriorly, and then curves very gradually to just behind the front eyes where it briefly diverges. It is dark brown with the eye field black and a broad, white median band running from the posterior eyes (and sometimes from the front eyes) to the rear margin where it joins two equally wide, entire, submarginal bands. There is a narrow black marginal band. The abdomen is elongate oval with hunched shoulders anteriorly. It is dark brown in colour with a broad white median band, continuing the one on the carapace and almost reaching the spinnerets. The sides of the abdomen are white. At about a third of the way from the spinnerets there are two characteristic circular white spots adjacent to the white median band and two more near the spinnerets. On the lighter brown and more patterned female these white circular spots are still present and catch the eye immediately. They signal that the spider is likely to be a Plexippus species. The spiny legs are light brown in colour with the tibiae and metatarsi of legs I a darker brown. Other Plexippus species have different patterns but they mostly seem to have a well turned out appearance. Although not quite as striking as P. paykulli, there also occurs in our area P. petersi which has very similar genitalia and for this reason, until comparatively recently, the two were often confused. Most of the Plexippus species in our area are regarded as doubtful in Roewer's catalogue although, in recent years, quite a number of Roewer's doubtful ("nicht zu deuten") species have been found to exist.
Distribution: As a result of recent transfers, the species now remaining in Plexippus appear to be distributed in the belt bounded by southern Central Asia to Japan in the north and by Africa to Papua New Guinea in the south. Most of the species recorded in the New World and Australia have been transferred to other genera and the few remaining species in these regions may suffer the same fate in due course. Murphy & Murphy 2000: 319. By courtesy of the Authors' and the Malaysian Nature Society.

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