Aelurillus

Aelurillus
male A. v-insignitus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Family:	Salticidae
Subfamily:	Aelurillinae
Genus:	Aelurillus Simon, 1884
Type species
Araneus litera v insignitus Clerck, 1757
Species
see text
Diversity
68 species

Aelurillus is a genus of the spider family Salticidae (jumping spiders).

Description

Aelurillus are typically about 7 mm long in females, and up to five mm in males. They are stout, squat-shaped and rather furry, with females often uniformly mottled sandy brown, while males are often black, sometimes with a pattern and with light, annulated legs.^[1]

Habits

Spiders in this genus mainly catch and feed on ants (myrmecophagy).

A Southeast Asian Aelurillus species has been observed to jump around 30-40 times its body length straight onto the back of a large gnaphosid spider and kill it.^[2]

They like hot, dry, stony places or small bare open areas with dead twigs or similar amongst low vegetation.^[1]

Distribution

Aelurillus occurs in the Palaearctic and Africa, with a few species known from India (A. improvisus, A. minimontanus) and Sri Lanka (A. kronestedti, A. quadrimaculatus). Aelurillus subfestivus is found in Japan.

Species

• Aelurillus aeruginosus (Simon, 1871) — Mediterranean
• Aelurillus afghanus Azarkina, 2006 — Afghanistan
• Aelurillus andreevae Nenilin, 1984 — Central Asia
• Aelurillus angularis Prószynski, 2000 — Israel
• Aelurillus ater (Kroneberg, 1875) — Central Asia
• Aelurillus balearus Azarkina, 2006 — Canary Islands, Balearic Islands
• Aelurillus basseleti (Lucas, 1846) — Algeria, Tunisia
• Aelurillus blandus (Simon, 1871) — Greece, Crete
• Aelurillus bokerinus Prószynski, 2003 — Israel
• Aelurillus bosmansi Azarkina, 2006 — Spain
• Aelurillus brutus Wesolowska, 1996 — Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan
• Aelurillus catherinae Prószynski, 2000 — Egypt
• Aelurillus catus Simon, 1886 — Senegal
• Aelurillus cognatus (O. P.-Cambridge, 1872) — Lebanon
• Aelurillus concolor Kulczynski, 1901 — Macedonia, Iran, Central Asia
• Aelurillus conveniens (O. P.-Cambridge, 1872) — Egypt, Israel, Syria
• Aelurillus cretensis Azarkina, 2002 — Crete
• Aelurillus cristatopalpus Simon, 1902 — South Africa
• Aelurillus cypriotus Azarkina, 2006 — Cyprus
• Aelurillus dorthesi (Audouin, 1826) — Egypt
• Aelurillus dubatolovi Azarkina, 2003 — Central Asia
• Aelurillus faragallai Prószynski, 1993 — Saudi Arabia, Yemen
• Aelurillus gershomi Prószynski, 2000 — Israel
• Aelurillus guecki Metzner, 1999 — Greece
• Aelurillus helvenacius Logunov, 1993 — Mongolia
• Aelurillus hirtipes Denis, 1960 — North Africa
• Aelurillus improvisus Azarkina, 2002 — India
• Aelurillus jerusalemicus Prószynski, 2000 — Israel
• Aelurillus kochi Roewer, 1951 — Greece, Israel, Syria
• Aelurillus kopetdaghi Wesolowska, 1996 — Turkmenistan
• Aelurillus kronestedti Azarkina, 2004 — Sri Lanka
• Aelurillus laniger Logunov & Marusik, 2000 — Macedonia, Kazakhstan
• Aelurillus latebricola Spassky, 1941 — Tajikistan
• Aelurillus leipoldae (Metzner, 1999) — Crete
• Aelurillus logunovi Azarkina, 2004 — Afghanistan, Pakistan
• Aelurillus lopadusae Cantarella, 1983 — Italy, Algeria
• Aelurillus lucasi Roewer, 1951 — Canary Islands, Salvages
• Aelurillus luctuosus (Lucas, 1846) — Mediterranean to Turkmenistan
• Aelurillus lutosus (Tyschchenko, 1965) — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan
• Aelurillus marusiki Azarkina, 2002 — Iran
• Aelurillus minimontanus Azarkina, 2002 — India
• Aelurillus mirabilis Wesolowska, 2006 — Namibia
• Aelurillus m-nigrum Kulczynski, 1891 — Palearctic
• Aelurillus monardi (Lucas, 1846) — Mediterranean
• Aelurillus muganicus Dunin, 1984 — Azerbaijan
• Aelurillus nabataeus Prószynski, 2003 — Israel
• Aelurillus nenilini Azarkina, 2002 — Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan
• Aelurillus numidicus (Lucas, 1846) — Algeria
• Aelurillus plumipes (Thorell, 1875) — Algeria, Tunisia
• Aelurillus politiventris (O. P.-Cambridge, 1872) — Greece to Israel
• Aelurillus quadrimaculatus Simon, 1889 — India, Sri Lanka
• Aelurillus reconditus Wesolowska & van Harten, 1994 — Yemen
• Aelurillus rugatus (Bösenberg & Lenz, 1895) — Tanzania
• Aelurillus sahariensis Berland & Millot, 1941 — Mali
• Aelurillus schembrii Cantarella, 1982 — Sicily, Malta
• Aelurillus simoni (Lebert, 1877) — Switzerland
• Aelurillus simplex (Herman, 1879) — Hungary
• Aelurillus spinicrus (Simon, 1871) — Morocco
• Aelurillus stanislawi (Prószynski, 1999) — Israel, Syria, Ethiopia
• Aelurillus steinmetzi Metzner, 1999 — Greece
• Aelurillus steliosi Dobroruka, 2002 — Crete
• Aelurillus subaffinis Caporiacco, 1947 — Ethiopia
• Aelurillus subfestivus Saito, 1934 — Japan
• Aelurillus tumidulus Wesolowska & Tomasiewicz, 2008 — Ethiopia
• Aelurillus unitibialis Azarkina, 2002 — Iran
• Aelurillus v-insignitus (Clerck, 1757) — Palearctic
  • Aelurillus v-insignitus morulus (Simon, 1937) — France
  • Aelurillus v-insignitus obsoletus Kulczynski, 1891 — Eastern Europe

Footnotes

1. Murphy & Murphy 2000: 273
2. Murphy & Murphy 2000: 344

References

• Murphy, Frances & Murphy, John (2000): An Introduction to the Spiders of South East Asia. Malaysian Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur.
• Platnick, Norman I. (2009): The world spider catalog, version 9.5. American Museum of Natural History.

Further reading

• Li, D., Jackson, R.R. & Harland, D.P (1999). Prey-capture techniques and prey preferences of Aelurillus aeruginosus, A. cognatus and A. kochi, ant-eating jumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae) from Israel. Isr. J. Zool 45: 341-.
• Azarkina, G.N. (2004): Two new species of the genus Aelurillus Simon, 1884 from Pakistan and Sri Lanka (Araneae: Salticidae). Bulletin of the British Arachnological Society 13(2): 49-52
• Szűts, T. & Azarkina, G. (2002): Redescription of Aelurillus subaffinis Caporiacco, 1947 (Araneae: Salticidae). Annales Historico-Naturales Musei Nationalis Hungarici 94: 209-216. PDF

External links

• Short description of Aelurillus (with drawings)
• Redescription of Aelurillus subaffinis Caporiacco, 1947 (PDF)
• Photographs of A. monardi
• Photograph of A. aeruginosus