''Pellenes nigrociliatus'' is a jumping spider species in the genus ''

Pellenes ''Pellenes'' is a genus of jumping spiders that was first described by Eugène Louis Simon in 1876. It is considered a senior synonym of ''Hyllothyene''. They are dark to black with white stripes on the back, and often have bright red markings. M ...

''.

Taxonomy

Originally allocated to the genus '' Attus'', the species was first identified by

Eugène Simon Eugène Louis Simon (; 30 April 1848 – 17 November 1924) was a French naturalist who worked particularly on insects and spiders, but also on birds and plants. He is by far the most prolific spider taxonomist in history, describing over 4, ...

in 1875 and published in a paper by

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 ...

. It was given its current name in 1876.

Description

The spider is generally black with broad white stripes across 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 ...

. The female is larger at between long, compared to the male that is between long.

Distribution

The species has been found in an area that pans from the Canary Islands, through Turkey and Israel, across the Caucasus and Russia, to Central Asia and as far as China. The species is endemic across Europe, and has been identified in surveys across a wide range of countries including France, the Czech Republic and Poland.

Synonyms

In 1999, the species ''Pellenes tauricus'' ( Thorelli, 1875) was moved from being a synonym with '' Pellenes simoni'' to be a junior synonym with ''Pellenes nigrociliatus''. According to the

World Spider Catalog The World Spider Catalog (WSC) is an online searchable database concerned with spider taxonomy. It aims to list all accepted families, genera and species, as well as provide access to the related taxonomic literature. The WSC began as a series of ...

, the species has also been described by the following species names: * ''Attus bedeli'' Simon, 1875 * ''Attus nigrociliatus'' Simon, 1875 * ''Attus tauricus'' Thorell, 1875 (later moved to ''Pellenes'') * ''Calliethera unispina'' Franganillo, 1910 * ''Pellenes bedeli'' Simon, 1876 * ''Pellenes bilunulatus'' Simon, 1877 * ''Pellenes brassayi'' Herman, 1879 * ''Pellenes nigrociliatus bilunulatus'' Simon, 1937

Habits

The species nests and overwinters in snail shells, such as ''

Xerolenta obvia ''Xerolenta obvia'' is a species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial gastropod mollusk in the family Geomitridae, the hairy snails and their allies. MolluscaBase eds. (2022). MolluscaBase. Xerolenta obvia (Menke, 1828). Accessed through: ...

'', that they suspend from trees. The shells, which may weigh five or more times as much as the spider, are used to shelter from attacks by ants.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2634660 Arthropods of China Arthropods of Israel Arthropods of Russia Arthropods of Turkey Spiders of the Canary Islands Spiders of Europe Salticidae Spiders of Asia Taxa named by Eugène Simon Spiders described in 1875