orbiculata (Keyserling, 1881) = Zenodorus orbiculata (Keyserling, 1881) (Davies, Zabka 1989: t. 37)
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:
Pystira. The single species of Pystira which occurs in our
area is a squat, solid looking, black and yellow salticid often to be found
on plants with broad leaves. The cephalothorax is high and in plan only slightly
longer than broad and U-shaped. The top is very slightly convex, and the sides
and the back of the thorax are vertical. The carapace is entirely blackish-purple
and shiny. The abdomen is wide and round, almost circular on the male, and broadly
truncate anteriorly. There is a very wide, transverse, black band in the centre
which is bounded by a broad white band across the shoulders and a narrower one
to the rear. There is a black area near the spinnerets. The uniformly yellowish
orange legs carry numerous weak spines. The colour pattern and shape of this
salticid makes it easily recognised in the field.
Distribution: Although in the literature Pystira ephippigera is recorded
only from Sumatra, we have found it in P. Malaysia, Singapore and Sabah
as well. The overall range for Pystira appears to be the tropics from P. Malaysia
to Australia. Murphy &
Murphy 2000: 353-354. By courtesy of the Authors' and the Malaysian Nature
Society.
Copyright © for the page by J. Proszynski, 1999.