''Matagaia'' is a

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 ...

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 ...

. Its only species, ''M. chromatopus'', was only found on Fernando de Noronha Island, an isolated group of volcanic islands located in the South Equatorial Atlantic, about 350 km from the nearest

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

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

Description

''M. chromatopus'' is similar to the genus ''

Icius ''Icius'' is a genus of jumping spiders described by Eugène Simon in 1876, belonging to the Order Araneae, Family Salticidae. Distribution ''Icius'' is an almost cosmopolitan genus, widespread in Europe (mainly in Belgium, Croatia, France, Ge ...

'' in general appearance,

sexual dimorphism 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 ...

and male

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

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 classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

''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