''Heliophanus cupreus'', the copper sun jumper, is a species of

jumping spider Jumping spiders are a group of spiders that constitute the family (biology), 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 sp ...

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 ...

Subspecies

Subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

include: *''Heliophanus cupreus cuprescens'' *''Heliophanus cupreus globifer''

Distribution

''Heliophanus cupreus'' has a

Palearctic 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-Sibe ...

distribution, being found throughout Europe except Iceland. Fauna Europaea
It is alco present in

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

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

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

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

(

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 Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

to West

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. In Great Britain it has a scattered distribution as far north as central

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

where it is normally a coastal species.

Habitat and ecology

''Heliophanus cupreus'' has been collected from a wide variety of habitat types such as woodlands, grasslands,

raised bog Raised bogs, also called ombrotrophic bogs, are acidic, wet habitats that are poor in mineral salts and are home to flora and fauna that can cope with such extreme conditions. Raised bogs, unlike fens, are exclusively fed by precipitation ( ombro ...

s, coastal cliffs and shingle beaches, as well as disturbed habitats such as wastelands and quarries. Within its varied habitats, ''Heliophanus cupreus'' is commonly encountered in the drier locations. It is occasionally observed to be active on the surface but is more commonly found within the litter. In northern

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

''Heliophanus cupreus'' seems to require sunny conditions. When resting, ''Heliophanus cupreus'' may be found in a silken cell placed either under stones or within the litter.Spider and Harvestman Recording Scheme website
/ref>

Description

''Heliophanus cupreus'' can reach a body length of about in males, of in females. Nentwig W, Blick T, Gloor D, Hänggi A, Kropf C
Spiders of Europe.
/ref> These spiders have a dark, blackish body, with a metallic sheen. On the female the

palp Pedipalps (commonly shortened to palps or palpi) are the second pair of appendages of chelicerates – a group of arthropods including spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders. The pedipalps are lateral to the chelicerae ("jaws") and ...

s are yellow or light brown and contrast with her overall appearance. Furthermore the prosoma is usually crossed by a white line behind the eyes and the abdomen is circled with a white line, with white dots above.Regard d’Aragnee
/ref> The male has dark palps with white squamose hairs on front. The tibial apophysis has a fine, long, pointed, hook-shaped process. The male has a long

palpal bulb The two palpal bulbs – also known as palpal organs and genital bulbs – are the copulatory organs of a male spider. They are borne on the last segment of the pedipalps (the front "limbs" of a spider), giving the spider an appearance often descr ...

. The

cephalothorax 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 ...

is black with a metallic sheen and has white hairs, towards the front bright and on some individuals there are 1-2 bright pairs of spots to the rear. Legs are light yellow, with black longitudinal stripes, although some individuals may have uniformly dark legs. The

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 a ...

is grey-black, again with a metallic sheen and white hairs.

Biology

The adults of both sexes are found mainly in May, June and July and females may persist into the autumn.

References

{{taxonbar, from=Q1759906 Salticidae Spiders of Europe Spiders described in 1802 Palearctic spiders