''Evarcha falcata'' is a species of 'jumping spiders' belonging to the family

Salticidae 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 ...

Taxonomy

''Evarca falcata'' (Clerk, 1757) is considered by some authors a complex of three sibling species - ''E. falcata'' s.str., '' Evarcha proszynskii'' Marusik & Logunov, 1998, '' Evarcha hoyi'' ( Peckham & Peckham, 1883) - and their range is largely allopatric.

Subspecies

Two subspecies are currently recognised: *''Evarcha falcata nigrofusca'' (Strand, 1900) (

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

) *''Evarcha falcata xinglongensis'' Yang & Tang, 1996 ( China)

Distribution

This species is present in the

Palearctic realm The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sib ...

, from

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

, and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

and China. Spiders of Europe - Araneae
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Habitat

These jumping spiders prefers dry habitats, especially the sunny edges of forests with dense vegetation, grass, shrubbery, clearings and sparse woodlands. Spider and Harvestman Recording Scheme website
/ref>

Description

''Evarcha falcata'' can reach approximately a body length of in females, while males are slightly shorter, reaching about . Michael John Robert
The Spiders of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 2
/ref> In these medium sized spiders the upper side of the cephalothorax (

prosoma The cephalothorax, also called prosoma in some groups, is a tagma of various arthropods, comprising the head and the thorax fused together, as distinct from the abdomen behind. (The terms ''prosoma'' and ''opisthosoma'' are equivalent to ''cepha ...

) of the male is light brown in the anterior half, dark brown or black in the back half. Behind the eyes and at the sides of the cephalothorax there are wide, light beige, or white stripes. The center of the abdomen (

opisthosoma The opisthosoma is the posterior part of the body in some arthropods, behind the prosoma ( cephalothorax). It is a distinctive feature of the subphylum Chelicerata (arachnids, horseshoe crabs and others). Although it is similar in most respects to ...

) is light brown, framed by black and white stripes. The two central eyes of the face are rather large. The frontal area of the eyes is covered with light hairs. Also pedipalps are covered with longer, light hairs. Legs are light brown. Females differ from males also in color (

Sexual dimorphism Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most an ...

). Cephalothorax and abdomen are densely covered with brown hairs, without any light or black stripes and spots. On the abdomen of the males there is sometimes an indistinct drawing of bright oblique spots, similarly to '' Evarcha arcuata '', but the latter has longer white hairs on the face.

Biology and behavior

Adult of both sexes can be found from March to November. Un Monde dans mon Jardin
/ref> They are diurnal jumping spiders with a good visual and hunting ability. These spiders hide mainly in the lower tier of vegetation. They move in the thick of the grass, looking for their prey. During mating the male climbs the female backwards and in this condition moves along with the female for a long time. Then the male moves down to the side and inserts the pedipalps into the external genital structure of the female (

epigyne The epigyne or epigynum is the external genital structure of female spiders. As the epigyne varies greatly in form in different species, even in closely related ones, it often provides the most distinctive characteristic for recognizing species. ...

Gallery

File: Jumping spider - Evarcha falcata.jpg, Male, front view File:Evarcha falcata male.jpg, Male, dorsal view File:Evarcha falcata - Springspinne mit Beute 4262.JPG, Female with prey File:Evarcha falcata male.ogv, Video clip

Bibliography

*Clerck, 1757 : Svenska spindlar, uti sina hufvud-slågter indelte samt under några och sextio särskildte arter beskrefne och med illuminerade figurer uplyste. Stockholmiae, p. 1-154. *Heiko Bellmann: Kosmos-Atlas Spinnentiere Europas. = Spinnentiere Europas. 2. Auflage. Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2001, *Yang & Tang, 1996 : Three new species of family Salticidae from Gansu, China (Araneae). Journal of Lanzhou University Natural Sciences, vol. 32, p. 104-106.

References

External links

Photos of ''Evarcha falcata'' at Eurospiders

Invertebrated Online
{{Taxonbar, from=Q136182 Spiders described in 1757 Taxa named by Carl Alexander Clerck Salticidae Spiders of Europe Spiders of Asia Spiders of China Articles containing video clips Palearctic spiders