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.
Genus: Telamonia (4-11; 3-12), PI. 27.5. See also Koh, pp. 115-116.
With its somewhat cube-shaped cephalothorax and long, slightly tapering, tubular
abdomen, Telamonia is typical of a number of colourful salticid genera
which occur in rain forest. There are nearly twenty species of this genus in
our area. The cephalothorax is high, with the cephalus flat, the sides almost
vertical and the thorax sloping steeply to the rear margin. In plan, the carapace
is longer than wide, oval and moderately widely truncate at the rear. With the
anterior lateral eyes just behind the medians, the pattern is more or less 2,2,2,2.
The abdomen is long and tubular, rounded at the front and tapering gradually
to a bluntish rear. The legs are long, slender and carry numerous thin spines.
The front legs of the male are longest and carry noticeable dorsal and ventral
fringes on all segments except the tarsi. The colour patterns vary considerably
between the sexes and between the species. Typically, the cephalic part of the
carapace is usually coloured and there are usually two coloured longitudinal
stripes running the length of the abdomen. The overall effect can be very striking.
For example, on the female T. dimidiata, the general background colour
is light yellowish but the cephalus is covered in very white hairs with bright,
widish red rings surrounding the narrow black rings round the eyes. For good
measure the two longitudinal stripes on the abdomen are also bright red.
Distribution: The main area for Telamonia appears to be the tropics
from Africa to Papua New Guinea. However one species is recorded from China,
Korea and Japan. Murphy
& Murphy 2000: 299-300. By courtesy of the Authors' and the Malaysian
Nature Society.
Copyright © for the page by J. Proszynski, 1999.