Aelurillus Explained

Aelurillus is a genus of spiders in the family Salticidae (jumping spiders).

Description

Species of the genus Aelurillus are typically about 7 mm long in females, and up to five mm in males. They are stout, squat-shaped and rather furry, with females often uniformly mottled sandy brown, while males are often black, sometimes with a pattern and with light, annulated legs.^[1]

Habits

Spiders in this genus mainly catch and feed on ants (myrmecophagy).

A Southeast Asian species of the genus Aelurillus has been observed to jump around 30-40 times its body length straight onto the back of a large gnaphosid spider and kill it.^[2]

They like hot, dry, stony places or small bare open areas with dead twigs or similar amongst low vegetation.^[1]

Distribution

Species of the genus Aelurillus occur in the Palaearctic and Africa, with a few species known from India (A. improvisus, A. minimontanus) and Sri Lanka (A. kronestedti, A. quadrimaculatus). Aelurillus subfestivus is found in Japan.

Species

The following species are recognised in the genus Aelurillus:^[3]

• Aelurillus aeruginosus (Simon, 1871) – Mediterranean
• Aelurillus afghanus Azarkina, 2006 – Afghanistan
• Aelurillus alboclypeus Azarkina & Komnenov, 2015 – Turkey
• Aelurillus ambiguus (Denis, 1966) – Libya
• Aelurillus andreevae Nenilin, 1984 – Central Asia
• Aelurillus angularis Prószynski, 2000 – Israel
• Aelurillus ater (Kroneberg, 1875) – Central Asia
• Aelurillus balearus Azarkina, 2006 – Canary Islands, Balearic Islands
• Aelurillus basseleti (Lucas, 1846) – Algeria, Tunisia
• Aelurillus blandus (Simon, 1871) – Greece, Crete
• Aelurillus bokerinus Prószynski, 2003 – Israel
• Aelurillus bosmansi Azarkina, 2006 – Spain
• Aelurillus brutus Wesołowska, 1996 – Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan
• Aelurillus catherinae Prószynski, 2000 – Egypt
• Aelurillus catus Simon, 1886 – Senegal
• Aelurillus cognatus (O. P.-Cambridge, 1872) – Lebanon
• Aelurillus concolor Kulczynski, 1901 – Macedonia, Iran, Central Asia
• Aelurillus conveniens (O. P.-Cambridge, 1872) – Egypt, Israel, Syria
• Aelurillus cretensis Azarkina, 2002 – Crete
• Aelurillus cristatopalpus Simon, 1902 – South Africa
• Aelurillus cypriotus Azarkina, 2006 – Cyprus
• Aelurillus deltshevi Azarkina & Komnenov, 2015 – North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan
• Aelurillus desertus (Wesołowska & van Harten, 2010) – United Arab Emirates
• Aelurillus dorthesi (Audouin, 1826) – Egypt
• Aelurillus dubatolovi Azarkina, 2003 – Central Asia
• Aelurillus faragallai Prószynski, 1993 – Saudi Arabia, Yemen
• Aelurillus galinae Wesołowska & van Harten, 2010 – United Arab Emirates
• Aelurillus gershomi Prószynski, 2000 – Israel
• Aelurillus guecki Metzner, 1999 – Greece
• Aelurillus helvenacius Logunov, 1993 – Mongolia
• Aelurillus hirtipes Denis, 1960 – North Africa
• Aelurillus improvisus Azarkina, 2002 – India
• Aelurillus jerusalemicus Prószynski, 2000 – Israel
• Aelurillus khorasanicus Azarkina & Mirshamsi, 2014 – Iran
• Aelurillus kochi Roewer, 1951 – Greece, Israel, Syria
• Aelurillus kopetdaghi Wesołowska, 1996 – Turkmenistan
• Aelurillus kronestedti Azarkina, 2004 – Sri Lanka
• Aelurillus laniger Logunov & Marusik, 2000 – Macedonia, Kazakhstan
• Aelurillus latebricola Spassky, 1941 – Tajikistan
• Aelurillus leipoldae (Metzner, 1999) – Crete
• Aelurillus logunovi Azarkina, 2004 – Afghanistan, Pakistan
• Aelurillus lopadusae Cantarella, 1983 – Italy, Algeria
• Aelurillus lucasi Roewer, 1951 – Canary Islands, Salvages
• Aelurillus luctuosus (Lucas, 1846) – Mediterranean to Turkmenistan
• Aelurillus lutosus (Tyschchenko, 1965) – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan
• Aelurillus marusiki Azarkina, 2002 – Iran
• Aelurillus minimontanus Azarkina, 2002 – India
• Aelurillus mirabilis Wesołowska, 2006 – Namibia
• Aelurillus m-nigrum Kulczynski, 1891 – Palearctic
• Aelurillus madagascariensis Azarkina, 2009 – Madagascar
• Aelurillus marusiki Azarkina, 2002 – Iran
• Aelurillus minimontanus Azarkina, 2002 – India
• Aelurillus minutus Azarkina, 2002 – Syria, Eritrea
• Aelurillus mirabilis Wesołowska, 2006 Wesołowska, 2006 – Namibia
• Aelurillus monardi (Lucas, 1846) – Mediterranean
• Aelurillus murphyorum Azarkina, 2022 – Kenya
• Aelurillus nabataeus Prószynski, 2003 – Israel
• Aelurillus nenilini Azarkina, 2002 – Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan
• Aelurillus numidicus (Lucas, 1846) – Algeria
• Aelurillus plumipes (Thorell, 1875) – Algeria, Tunisia
• Aelurillus politiventris (O. P.-Cambridge, 1872) – Greece to Israel
• Aelurillus quadrimaculatus Simon, 1889 – India, Sri Lanka
• Aelurillus rugatus (Bösenberg & Lenz, 1895) – Tanzania
• Aelurillus russellsmithi Azarkina, 2009 – Ivory Coast
• Aelurillus schembrii Cantarella, 1982 – Sicily, Malta
• Aelurillus simplex (Herman, 1879) – Hungary
• Aelurillus spider monkey – Asia
• Aelurillus spinicrus (Simon, 1871) – Morocco
• Aelurillus steinmetzi Metzner, 1999 – Greece
• Aelurillus subaffinis Caporiacco, 1947 – Ethiopia
• Aelurillus subfestivus Saito, 1934 – Japan
• Aelurillus thailandicus Azarkina, 2019 – Thailand
• Aelurillus tumidulus Wesołowska & Tomasiewicz, 2008 – Ethiopia
• Aelurillus unitibialis Azarkina, 2002 – Iran
• Aelurillus v-insignitus (Clerck, 1757) – Palearctic
  • Aelurillus v-insignitus morulus (Simon, 1937) – France
  • Aelurillus v-insignitus obsoletus Kulczynski, 1891 – Eastern Europe
• Aelurillus westi Azarkina & Zamani, 2019 – Iran

References

• Murphy, Frances & Murphy, John (2000): An Introduction to the Spiders of South East Asia. Malaysian Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur.

Further reading

• Li, D., Jackson, R.R. & Harland, D.P (1999). Prey-capture techniques and prey preferences of Aelurillus aeruginosus, A. cognatus and A. kochi, ant-eating jumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae) from Israel. Isr. J. Zool 45: 341-.
• Azarkina, G.N. (2004): Two new species of the genus Aelurillus Simon, 1884 from Pakistan and Sri Lanka (Araneae: Salticidae). Bulletin of the British Arachnological Society 13(2): 49-52
• Szűts, T. & Azarkina, G. (2002): Redescription of Aelurillus subaffinis Caporiacco, 1947 (Araneae: Salticidae). Annales Historico-Naturales Musei Nationalis Hungarici 94: 209-216. PDF

External links

• Short description of Aelurillus (with drawings)
• Redescription of Aelurillus subaffinis Caporiacco, 1947 (PDF)
• Photographs of A. monardi
• Photograph of A. aeruginosus

Notes and References

1. Murphy & Murphy 2000: 273
2. Murphy & Murphy 2000: 344
3. Web site: NMBE - World Spider Catalog . 2022-12-02 . wsc.nmbe.ch.