''Irura bidenticulata'', commonly known as the purple-gold jumping spider, is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of salticid. As the name implies, while females tend to take on a more dull coloration, males are characterized by their striking, shiny magenta-gold patterned bodies. Discovered in 2011, the spider had initially been mistaken for a member of the ''

Simaetha ''Simaetha'' is a genus of Australasian jumping spiders that was first described by Tamerlan Thorell in 1881. They resemble members of '' Simaethula'' and '' Stertinius''. Species , it contains 23 species, found only in Asia, Papua New Guinea, an ...

'' genus. Native to regions of

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

, it was first spotted in Hainan, China, having since also been located in the Saraburi province of Thailand,

Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

, and

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

.Kropf C., Nentwig W., Blick T. & Gloor D. (organizing board). (2019). WSC: World Spider Catalog (version 19.5, Jan 2019). In: Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life, 2019 Annual Checklist (Roskov Y., Ower G., Orrell T., Nicolson D., Bailly N., Kirk P.M., Bourgoin T., DeWalt R.E., Decock W., Nieukerken E. van, Zarucchi J., Penev L., eds.). Digital resource at www.catalogueoflife.org/annual-checklist/2019. Species 2000: Naturalis, Leiden, the Netherlands. ISSN 2405-884X.

Description

The purple-gold jumping spider typically measures .Guo, J. Y., Zhang, F., Zhu, M. S. (2011) ''Two new species of the genus ''Irura'' Peckham & Peckham, 1901 (Araneae: Salticidae) from Hainan Island, China'', Acta Arachnologica 60: 89-91 It is

sexually dimorphic Sexual dimorphism is the condition where sexes of the same species exhibit different Morphology (biology), morphological characteristics, including characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most dioecy, di ...

; most females of the species are of an almost solid gold pigmentation (though some may exhibit a muted brown pattern resembling that of a male), while males are known for their dazzling purple-pink and gold patterned reflective

trichobothria Trichobothria (singular trichobothrium) are elongate setae ("hairs") present in arachnids, various orders of insects, and myriapods that function in the detection of airborne vibrations and currents, and electrical charge. In 1883, Friedrich Da ...

. The unique purple pattern on males' abdomens best described as "a

snow angel A snow angel is a design, made in fresh snow, by lying on one's back and moving one's arms up and down, and one's legs from side to side, to form the shape of an angel. Technique The creation of the snow angel is a simple process. The first s ...

wearing a tophat" surrounded by gold coloration tends to remain the same. However, the purple-gold pattern on the top of their heads often varies slightly between individuals, as do their

pedipalp Pedipalps (commonly shortened to palps or palpi) are the secondary pair of forward appendages among Chelicerata, chelicerates – a group of arthropods including spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders. The pedipalps are lateral to ...

s. The

chelicera 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 as a type ...

s are occasionally black-tipped, in addition to the base of the extremities.

Gallery

References

Salticidae Spiders of Asia Spiders described in 2011 {{jumping-spider-stub