Epeus

Male Epeus flavobilineatus

Epeus is a genus of the spider family Salticidae (jumping spiders). They are often found on broad-leaved plants or shrubs of rain forest, or in gardens of Southeast Asia.^[2]

The genus is similar to Plexippoides.^[3]

Description

Females are 7–9 mm long, males 6–9 mm. They are long-legged with a long opisthosoma, and quite colorful. Males have a characteristic v-shaped crest of raised, long hairs on the head, resembling a mohawk.^[2]

E. glorius, described in 1985, has a pale orange carapace with a deep orange crest of hairs. The three rear eye pairs have black surrounds with white squamose hairs, the opisthosoma is pale yellow. The four frontal legs of the male are brown with yellowish tarsi at the end, the other four legs are light brown. The legs of the female are pale yellow with black tips.^[2]

Distribution

Members of this genus are distributed throughout southern Asia.

Name

The generic name is derived from Epeius of Greek mythology.

Species

As of May 2021, the World Spider Catalog accepts the following species:^[1]

• Epeus alboguttatus (Thorell, 1887) – China, Myanmar, Vietnam
• Epeus albus Prószyński, 1992 – India
• Epeus bicuspidatus (Song, Gu & Chen, 1988) – China, Taiwan^[4]
• Epeus chilapataensis (Biswas & Biswas, 1992) – India
• Epeus daiqini Patoleta, Gardzińska & Żabka, 2020 – Thailand
• Epeus edwardsi Barrion & Litsinger, 1995 – Philippines
• Epeus exdomus Jastrzebski, 2010 – Nepal
• Epeus flavobilineatus (Doleschall, 1859) – Java
• Epeus furcatus Zhang, Song & Li, 2003 – Singapore
• Epeus glorius Zabka, 1985 – China, Taiwan,^[4] Vietnam
• Epeus guangxi Peng & Li, 2002 – China, Taiwan^[4]
• Epeus hawigalboguttatus Barrion & Litsinger, 1995 – Philippines
• Epeus indicus Prószyński, 1992 – India
• Epeus mirus (Peckham & Peckham, 1907) – Borneo
• Epeus pallidus Patoleta, Gardzińska & Żabka, 2020 – Thailand
• Epeus sumatranus Prószyński & Deeleman-Reinhold, 2012 – Sumatra
• Epeus szirakii Patoleta, Gardzińska & Żabka, 2020 – Thailand
• Epeus tener (Simon, 1877) – Java
• Epeus triangulopalpis Malamel, Nafin, Sudhikumar & Sebastian, 2019 – India

Footnotes

References

• Murphy, F. & Murphy, J. (2000): An Introduction to the Spiders of South East Asia. Malaysian Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur.
• Zhang, J. X.; Song, D. X. & Li, D. (2003): Six new and one newly recorded species of Salticidae (Arachnida: Araneae) from Singapore and Malaysia. The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 51(2):187-195. PDF (E. furcatus)
• Chen, C.-C. (2013). A taxonomic study on the spiders of Plexippoida (Araneae: Salticidae) of Taiwan (Master thesis). National Taiwan Normal University. p. 205.