Macaroeris nidicolens 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 ...

that occurs 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 Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

Description

Males reach a body length of , females of . The male has reddish brown hairs surrounding its frontal eyes. Two white stripes reach along the

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 ...

towards 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 ...

(abdomen). Several white spots cover the top of the prosoma, one bigger each behind the posterior lateral eyes. A white arch covers the anterior end of the abdomen, with pairs of white specks further down, four of which form a slanted cross near the posterior end. The female is colored much lighter than the male. A white triangle sits in the middle of the prosoma, while the abdomen matches the male's. Color and patterning can vary strongly in this species. Both sexes have black, curves tufts of hair on the sides behind the anterior lateral eyes.

Habitat

''Macaroeris nidicolens'' prefers bushes in warm, dry, sunny to half-shaded areas.

Distribution

The species is found from Europe to Central Asia. In Germany it was found first in 1995 (Cologne), and seems to expand its area further.

Name

The species name is derived from Latin, and means "inhabiting a nest".

References

* Spinnen-Forum.de
''Macaroeris nidicolens''
(see there for more detailed sources) * Bellmann H. (2010): Der Kosmos Spinnenführer: Über 400 Arten Europas. Kosmos. 1. Auflage. * (2012)

version 12.5. ''American Museum of Natural History''.

External resources

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4743843 Salticidae Spiders of Europe Spiders of Asia Spiders described in 1802 Taxa named by Charles Athanase Walckenaer