Pellenes brevis is a species of jumping spider in the genus Pellenes. Initially named Attus brevis, the species was first identified in 1878 in France and Spain. It has subsequently been found in many countries in southern Europe and western Asia from Portugal to Iran. The spider is very dark brown or black, with a distinctive white semi-circle marking on the abdomen. The female is larger than the male, measuring up to 5.3 millimetres (0.21 in) in length. It lays its eggs in snail shells.
| Pellenes brevis | |
|---|---|
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| Female Pellenes brevis seen in France in 2008 | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae |
| Infraorder: | Araneomorphae |
| Family: | Salticidae |
| Subfamily: | Salticinae |
| Genus: | Pellenes |
| Species: | P. brevis
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| Binomial name | |
| Pellenes brevis (Simon, 1868)
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Taxonomy
editOriginally allocated to the genus Attus as Attus brevis, the species was first identified by Eugène Simon in 1868. It was moved by Simon to the genus Pellenes in 1878.[1]
Description
editThe spider has a very dark brown or black body with a slight golden tinge. The abdomen is black, with a white semi-circle marking at the front. It has black thighs and brown legs, the front legs looking swollen and the third legs thin and long.[2] The female is larger at between 4.6 and 5.3 millimetres (0.18 and 0.21 in) long, compared to the male that is between 3.65 and 3.8 millimetres (0.144 and 0.150 in) long.[3] The male has a brown carapace that is typically 1.85 millimetres (0.073 in) long and 1.35 millimetres (0.053 in) wide and abdomen 1.78 millimetres (0.070 in) long.[4] The female carapace is typically 2.33 millimetres (0.092 in) long and 1.83 millimetres (0.072 in) wide and abdomen 3.08 millimetres (0.121 in) long and 2.20 millimetres (0.087 in).wide.[5]
The species is similar to other members of genus, differing in details. For example, it can be differentiated from Pellenes allegrii by the size of the embolus in the male and the shape and size of the central blind-ending pocket in the female, and from Pellenes pseudobrevis by the female genitalia and male pedipalps.[6]
Distribution
editPellenes brevis has an extensive range across southern Europe into western Asia. It was first identified in Auvergne and Vaucluse in France and Guadarrama in Spain.[7] The species has been subsequently found across Europe in Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Italy, Macedonia, Portugal, Turkey and Ukraine.[1] Other examples have been found in Bulgaria and Poland.[8][4] It was the twenty-first species in the genus to be identified in the ex-Soviet Union.[9] The furthest East that it has been found is in Crimea and Tehran, Iran.[4][10]
Habits
editThe species is known to lay, and guard, its eggs in snail shells.[11]
References
editCitations
edit- ^ a b World Spider Catalog (2023). "Pellenes brevis (Simon, 1868)". World Spider Catalog. 24.0. Bern: Natural History Museum. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
- ^ Simon 1868, p. 57.
- ^ Nentwig, W; Blick, T; Gloor, D; Hänggi, A; Kropf, C. "Pellenes brevis (Simon, 1868)". Spiders of Europe. UNIBE. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
- ^ a b c Logunov, Marusik & Rakov 1999, p. 143.
- ^ Logunov, Marusik & Rakov 1999, p. 144.
- ^ Logunov, Marusik & Rakov 1999, pp. 113, 139.
- ^ Simon 1868, p. 58.
- ^ Żabka 2006, p. 567.
- ^ Logunov, Marusik & Rakov 1999, p. 90.
- ^ Hosseini et al. 2014, p. 441.
- ^ Kaston 1965, p. 345.
Bibliography
edit- Hosseini, Mojtaba; Mirshamsi, Omid; Kashefi, Roya; Fekrat, Lida (2014). "A contribution to the knowledge of spiders in wheat fields of Khorasan-e-Razavi Province, Iran". Turkish Journal of Zoology. 38 (4): 437–443. doi:10.3906/zoo-1307-16.
- Kaston, Benjamin Julian (1965). "Some Little Known Aspects of Spider Behavior". American Midland Naturalist. 73 (2): 345. doi:10.2307/2423458. JSTOR 2423458.
- Logunov, D.V.; Marusik, Y. M.; Rakov, S. Yu (1999). "A Review of the genus Pellenes in the Fauna of Central Asia and the Caucasus (Araneae, Salticidae)" (PDF). Journal of Natural History. 33 (1): 89–148. doi:10.1080/002229399300489. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
- Simon, Eugène (1868). "Monographie des espèces européennes de la famille des Attides (Attidae Sundewall. - Saltigradae Latreille)". Annales de la Société Entomologique de France. 4 (8pages=11–72, 529–726).
- Żabka, Marek (2006). "Salticidae (Arachnida: Araneae) from Oriental, Australian and Pacific Regions. XIX. Genus Pellenes Simon, 1876 in Australia". Annales Zoologici. 56 (3): 567–573.