:Bellota'' is also a

homonym In linguistics, homonyms are words which are either; '' homographs''—words that mean different things, but have the same spelling (regardless of pronunciation), or '' homophones''—words that mean different things, but have the same pronunciat ...

of the

plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

Beilschmiedia ''Beilschmiedia'' is a genus of trees and shrubs in family Lauraceae. Most of its species grow in tropical climates, but a few of them are native to temperate regions, and they are widespread in tropical Asia, Africa, Madagascar, Australia, New Z ...

''.'' ''Bellota'' is a

jumping spiders Jumping spiders are a group of spiders that constitute the family Salticidae. , this family contained over 600 described genera and over 6,000 described species, making it the largest family of spiderscomprising 13% of spider species. Jumping s ...

that was first described by

George Peckham George "Porky" Peckham (born 1942) is an English record engineer, widely recognised as among the most accomplished in the business. He has been responsible for producing the master discs from which many vinyl records have been pressed over the ...

& Elizabeth Peckham in 1892. It is similar in appearance to the genus ''

Chirothecia ''Chirothecia'' is a genus of Salticidae, jumping spiders that was first described by Władysław Taczanowski in 1878. ''Chirothecia'' is very similar to ''Bellota'', but can be distinguished by the following characteristics: a much wider and tall ...

'', but has a narrower

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 a shorter eye area. The type species was later designated as ''Bellota peckhami'' Galiano, 1978, from a male specimen previously misidentied by the Peckham's as ''Bellota formicina'' (Taczanowski, 1878), per Galiano, 1978.

Distribution

Most species of ''Balmaceda'' are found in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

with one also in Central America (

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

), and two in North America (United States of America). Two others with a notably disjunct distribution in

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

described by Dyal, 1935 can be of questionable affinity.

Species

genus ''Balmaceda'' contains nine species: *'' Bellota fascialis'' Dyal, 1935 – Pakistan *'' Bellota formicina'' (

Taczanowski Taczanowski (Polish feminine: Taczanowska; plural: Taczanowscy) is the surname of a Polish szlachta (nobility) family from Poznań bearing the Jastrzębiec coat of arms and the motto: ''Plus penser que dire''. They took their name from their ...

, 1878) – Ecuador, Peru *'' Bellota livida'' Dyal, 1935 – Pakistan *'' Bellota micans'' Peckham & Peckham, 1909 – USA *'' Bellota modesta'' ( Chickering, 1946) – Panama *'' Bellota peckhami'' Galiano, 1978 (

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * ...

) – Venezuela *'' Bellota violacea'' Galiano, 1972 – Brazil *'' Bellota wheeleri'' Peckham & Peckham, 1909 – USA *'' Bellota yacui'' Galiano, 1972 – Argentina

References

Salticidae genera Salticidae Spiders of Asia Spiders of North America Spiders of South America {{Jumping-spider-stub