''Attus'' is a

taxon In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

name that is now considered a

junior synonym The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. * In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linna ...

of '' Salticus''. In the early 19th century, most

jumping spiders Jumping spiders are a group of spiders that constitute the family Salticidae. As of 2019, this family contained over 600 described genera and over 6,000 described species, making it the largest family of spiders at 13% of all species. Jumping spi ...

were grouped together as a single

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

under the name ''Attus''. The genus was originally described in 1805 by Charles Walckenaer, only a year after

Pierre Latreille Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

described the first jumping spider genus (or subgenus), ''Salticus''. Walckenaer, ignoring Latreille, placed all of the spiders assigned to ''Salticus'' into his new genus, ''Attus'', with the exception of '' Aranea cinnaberinus'', which he placed into ''

Eresus ''Eresus'', also called ladybird spiders, is a genus of velvet spiders that was first described by Charles Athanase Walckenaer in 1805. Members of the genus formerly called ''Eresus cinnaberinus'' or ''Eresus niger'' are now placed in one of ...

''. No further actions were taken regarding these genera until 1810, when Latreille moved '' Attus scenicus'' back to ''Salticus'' by declaring it as the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

for the genus. Over the course of the 19th century, numerous new genera were split off of ''Attus'', reducing the number of species assigned to the genus considerably. In 1832,

Nicholas Marcellus Hentz Nicholas Marcellus Hentz (July 25, 1797 – November 4, 1856) was a French American educator and arachnologist. Biography Hentz was born in Versailles, France. He was the youngest child of Charles Nicholas Arnould Hentz and Marie-Anne Therese Da ...

detached the genera '' Lyssomanes'', ''

Synemosyna ''Synemosyna'' is a genus of ant mimicking jumping spiders that was first described by Nicholas Marcellus Hentz in 1846. Species it contains twenty species, found in the Caribbean, Central America, South America, the United States, and Mexico: ...

'', and '' Epiblemum'' from ''Attus''. In 1833, Carl Sundevall moved numerous species from ''Attus'' to ''Salticus''. From 1833 to 1850,

Carl Ludwig Koch Carl Ludwig Koch (21 September 1778 – 23 August 1857) was a German entomologist and arachnologist. He was responsible for classifying a great number of spiders, including the Brazilian whiteknee tarantula and common house spider. He was bo ...

created 24 new jumping spider genera, most of which were detached from ''Attus''. Due to the genus's unclear definition, it was often used as a provisional classification for any jumping spiders that could not otherwise be assigned to a genus. In 1955, Pierre Bonnet declared ''Attus'' to be a junior synonym of ''Salticus'', since Walkenaer did not differentiate ''Attus'' from ''Salticus'' and the latter has priority as an older name.

References

{{reflist, 1, refs= {{cite book, title=Bibliographia Araneorum, first=Pierre, last=Bonnet, volume=2, year=1955, location=Toulouse, France, language=French, page=781 {{cite journal, title=Tableau methodique des Insectes, last=Latreille, first=Pierre André, year=1804, journal=Nouveau dictionnaire d'histoire naturelle, location=Paris, volume=24, page=135 {{cite journal, last1=Peckham, first1=George, last2=Peckham, first2=Elizabeth, title=Genera of the Family Attidae: With a Partial Synonymy, year=1885, journal=Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, volume=6, page=261, url=http://www.peckhamia.com/editions/Peckham%201885%20Genera%20of%20the%20family%20Attidae%20with%20a%20partial%20synonymy.pdf {{cite journal, last1=Peckham, first1=George, last2=Peckham, first2=Elizabeth, title=Attidae of North America, year=1888, journal=Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, volume=7, page=8, url=http://www.peckhamia.com/editions/Peckham%201888%20Attidae%20of%20North%20America.pdf {{cite journal, first=Frederick Octavius, last=Pickard-Cambridge, title=A Revision of the Genera of the Araneae or Spiders with Reference to their Type Species, journal=Annals and Magazine of Natural History, location=London, year=1901, volume=9, page=65 {{cite web, first=Jerzy, last=Proszynski, year=2002, url=http://www.salticidae.org/salticid/catalog/attus.htm, title=''Attus'', work=Catalogue of Salticidae (Araneae), accessdate=2009-11-23 {{cite book, first=Charles Athanase, last=Walckenaer, title=Tableau des aranéides ou caractères essentiels des tribus, genres, familles et races que renferme le genre Aranea de Linné, avec la désignation des espèces comprises dans chacune de ces divisions, location=Paris, language=French, year=1805 Historically recognized spider taxa Salticidae