Trite Planiceps
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''Trite planiceps'', commonly known as the black-headed jumping spider, is a common
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 ...
(Salticidae)
endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
to
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
and one of about 150 species of jumping spiders in New Zealand.


Taxonomy

''Trite planiceps'' was first described in 1873 as ''Salticus minax'' from specimens collected from
Riccarton Bush Riccarton is a suburb of Christchurch. It is due west of the city centre, separated from it by Hagley Park. Upper Riccarton is to the west of Riccarton. History On 12 April 1840, the ship ''Sarah and Elizabeth'' landed Herriot, McGillivray, ...
, Governor Bay and the
North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...
.''Trite planiceps'' was later described again in 1899 as its current name by Eugene Simon. In 2011, ''T. planiceps'' was redescribed after DNA sequences were used to provide molecular evidence for the taxonomy of this species The holotypes were stored at the
Muséum national d'histoire naturelle The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the ' (abbreviation MNHN), is the national natural history museum of France and a ' of higher education part of Sorbonne Universities. The main museum, with four galleries, is loc ...
but are thought to have been lost.


Description

Males and females range in body length from 6 to 13.5 mm. (2011): The black headed jumping spider, ''Trite planiceps'' Simon, 1899 (Araneae: Salticidae): redescription including cytochrome ''c'' oxidase subunit 1 and paralogous 28S sequences. ''New Zealand Journal of Zoology'' 38: 317–33

/ref> 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 ...
and first pair of legs are jet black. The elongated abdomen is golden brown, with a central yellow stripe, and sometimes has a greenish sheen. In males, the first pair of legs is elongated, there is a row of dark hairs above the frontal eyes, and the
chelicerae The chelicerae () are the mouthparts of the subphylum Chelicerata, an arthropod group that includes arachnids, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders. Commonly referred to as "jaws", chelicerae may be shaped as either articulated fangs, or similarly ...
(mouthparts) are more robust.


Behaviour


Hunting

While most jumping spider rely mostly on their very acute eyesight, ''T. planiceps'' has been shown to seize on prey in the dark, probably by means of vibratory signals. Unlike typical jumping spiders, they do not make nightly web shelters. As ''T. planiceps'' lives in low altitudes, this could be an adaptation to cool overcast winters, where they need to survive within the dim recesses of rolled-up leaves of New Zealand flax (''
Phormium tenax ''Phormium tenax'' (called flax in New Zealand English; in Māori; New Zealand flax outside New Zealand; and New Zealand hemp in historical nautical contexts) is an evergreen perennial plant native to New Zealand and Norfolk Island that is an i ...
'') and similar plants. These leaves are typically one to two meters long and 5 to 10 cm wide.


Courtship

They also change from vision-based courtship in the open to vibratory courtship when mating inside a rolled-up leaf. If an immature female is within about ten days of maturing, the male will live with her for this time and then mate inside the leaf. The two are in physical contact for a while after mating, and communicate using tactile signals. Upon entering a rolled-up leaf, both sexes will tap the leaf surface with the first pair of legs and vibrate their
abdomen The abdomen (colloquially called the belly, tummy, midriff, tucky or stomach) is the part of the body between the thorax (chest) and pelvis, in humans and in other vertebrates. The abdomen is the front part of the abdominal segment of the torso. ...
.


Nest building

Juveniles and subadults build flat, tubular silk cocoons with a door at each end inside rolled up leaves. Adult females build a silk platform 50% longer and two to three times wider than their own size before laying up to seven egg batches with 8 to 40 eggs each. Each batch is enclosed in its own silk casing. Males normally do not build nests. A wide array of behavioral patterns has been observed, among others ritualized male duels.


Interactions with humans

Due to their docile nature, bites from ''Trite planiceps'' are very rare (members of the public frequently handle them without getting bitten). Bites from ''T. planiceps'' only occur when the spider is acting defensively as a last resort. One case study of a ''T. planiceps'' bite reported that an individual was bitten when he rolled over while in bed and was unaware of a single ''T. planiceps'' in his shirt. The bite caused a stinging like sensation in his lower shoulder blades and left two puncture marks 1mm apart. After four hours, the skin surrounding the puncture mark had formed a red halo. The swelling and tenderness settled shortly after and the redness faded after 72 hours.Derraik, JGB, Sirvid, PJ and Rademaker, M. 2010. The first account of a bite by the New Zealand native spider ''Trite planiceps'' (Araneae: Salticidae). ''New Zealand Medical Journal'', 123: 1–7.


References


External links


Jumping spiders (family Salticidae)
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa * Salticidae.org

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1645407 Salticidae Spiders of New Zealand Spiders described in 1899