''Matagaia'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

jumping spiders Jumping spiders are a group of spiders that constitute the 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 species. Jumping spi ...

. Its only species, ''M. chromatopus'', was only found on

Fernando de Noronha Island Fernando de Noronha () is an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, part of the Pernambuco, State of Pernambuco, Brazil, and located off the Brazilian coast. It consists of 21 islands and islets, extending over an area of . Only the eponymous main is ...

, an isolated group of volcanic islands located in the South Equatorial Atlantic, about 350 km from the nearest

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian mainland.Ruiz ''et al.'' 2007

Description

''M. chromatopus'' is similar to the genus '' Icius'' in general appearance,

sexual dimorphism Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most ani ...

and male palp structure. Females are almost 5 mm long, with males less than 4 mm.

Name

The species name refers to the male leg coloration, and is said to be derived from

ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

''chromos'' "color" and ''pus'' "foot". Ιn ancient Greek, "color" and "foot" are respectively ''chrōma'' (χρῶμα, genitive χρῶματος) and ''pous'' (πούς).Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). ''A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with the assistance of. Roderick McKenzie.'' Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Notes

References

* (2007): Spiders from Fernando de Noronha, Brazil. Part II. Proposal of a new genus and description of three new species of jumping spiders (Araneae, Salticidae). ''Revista Brasileira de Zoologia'' 24(3): 771-776
PDF
* (2008)

version 9.0. ''American Museum of Natural History''. Salticidae Spiders of South America Monotypic Salticidae genera {{Salticidae-stub