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:
Siler. This is a genus of small and sometimes very colourful salticids.
A specimen of the colourful S. semiglaucus was seen to pursue, in a purposeful
way, an ant on a tree trunk, but as the ant got away we were unable to decide
if the ant was its prey. The cephalothorax has a flat cephalus, with the longish
thorax sloping steadily from the rear eyes to the posterior edge and almost
vertical sides. In plan the carapace is U-shaped, briefly flared near the front
lateral eyes and has a moderately truncate posterior margin. The abdomen is
elongate oval, widest in the rear half and truncated anteriorly. The moderately
spiny legs are quite long and slender, with legs I more robust than the others
and legs IV noticeably the longest. For S. semiglaucus, the underlying
colour of the cephalus is brown and for the rest of the carapace bright orange.
The top of the carapace, together with the area that starts from the rear eyes
and converges towards the rear margin, is covered with dense, adpressed, long,
fawn coloured hairs. The front two-thirds of the abdomen are coloured bright
orange and contain four large shiny, silver-coloured ovals. This area is bordered
by a thin brown margin, and this in turn is bordered by a broad band of shiny
silver hairs around the shoulders, the sides and to the rear of the area. The
remainder of the abdomen near the spinnerets is covered with iridescent dark
purple hairs. The femora and patellae of legs I are orangish yellow and the
tibiae are brown. All the other leg segments are orangish-yellow and with longitudinal
brown stripes on legs III and IV. Above and below tibiae I there are dense fringes
of black hairs and to a lesser extent below femora I and patellae I. The colour
patterns of other species vary but S. collingwoodi from Hong Kong is
very similar in appearance to S. semiglaucus,
Distribution: The main region for Siler extends from P. Malaysia
and Sumatra to Japan and Papua New Guinea in the east. The colourful S. semiglaucus
has been recorded from Sri Lanka. Murphy
& Murphy 2000: 354. By courtesy of the Authors' and the Malaysian Nature
Society.
Copyright © for the page by J. Proszynski, 1999.