''Paracyrba'' is a

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 ...

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 ...

found only in

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. It contains only one species, ''Paracyrba wanlessi''. Its

microhabitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

are the water-filled hollow

internodes A stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant, the other being the root. It supports leaves, flowers and fruits, transports water and dissolved substances between the roots and the shoots in the xylem and phloem, stores nutrien ...

of decaying

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, bu ...

, where it preys for aquatic animals, especially

mosquito Mosquitoes (or mosquitos) are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin ''culex'' meaning " gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by ''mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish for "li ...

larvae.Zhang ''et al.'' 2006 ''P. wanlessi'' and ''

Evarcha culicivora ''Evarcha culicivora'' is a species of jumping spider (family Salticidae) found only around Lake Victoria in Kenya and Uganda. At maturity, ''E. culicivora'' spiders have an average size of 5 mm for both males and females. The range in ...

'', a jumping spider, are the only two spiders that have been experimentally studied and considered a mosquito specialist. ''E. culicivora'' indirectly feeds vertebrate blood by preying female mosquitos that carry blood.Jackson, Robert R., and Fiona R. Cross. "Mosquito-terminator spiders and the meaning of predatory specialization." The Journal of Arachnology 43.2 (2015): 123-142. In general only one specimen is found per occupied bamboo internode.Murphy & Murphy 2000: 294

Description

Females are up to 9 mm long, males 7 to 8. The spiders is generally dark colored. On the flattened carapace, there is a central whitish band, which is much larger in the female. On 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 ...

there are four to five transverse, yellowish bands, and a light area near the

spinnerets A spinneret is a silk-spinning organ of a spider or the larva of an insect. Some adult insects also have spinnerets, such as those borne on the forelegs of Embioptera. Spinnerets are usually on the underside of a spider's opisthosoma, and are ...

. The long, thin legs are suited for their stealthy, non-jumping movements. The genitals are very similar to those of ''

Cyrba ''Cyrba'' is a genus of spiders in the family Salticidae (jumping spiders). The genus was erected by Hippolyte Lucas in 1846. Description ''Cyrba'' spiders are small to medium size spiders that are usually brightly colored. Their cephalothorax ...

'', and ''P. wanlessi'' seems to have separated from it mainly due to its lifestyle.

Name

The genus name is a combination of the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

para Para, or PARA, may refer to: Businesses and organizations * Paramount Global, traded as PARA on the Nasdaq stock exchange * Para Group, the former name of CT Corp * Para Rubber, now Skellerup, a New Zealand manufacturer * Para USA, formerly ...

'' "near to" and the name of the related genus ''

''. The species is named in honor of Fred R. Wanless, who contributed much to the knowledge about the subfamily

Spartaeinae The Spartaeinae are a subfamily of the spider family Salticidae (jumping spiders). The subfamily was established by Fred R. Wanless in 1984 to include the groups Boetheae, Cocaleae, Lineae, Codeteae and Cyrbeae, which in turn were defined by E ...

Footnotes

References

* Murphy, Frances & Murphy, John (2000): An Introduction to the Spiders of South East Asia. ''Malaysian Nature Society'', Kuala Lumpur. * Zhang, J.X.; Woon, J.R.W. & Li, D. (2006): A new genus and species of jumping spiders (Araneae:Salticidae:Spartaeinae) from Malaysia. ''The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology'' 54(2): 241-244
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Footnotes

* Salticidae.org

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q14653744, from2=Q1304617 Salticidae Monotypic Salticidae genera Invertebrates of Malaysia Spiders of Asia