''Paracyrba'' 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 ...

found only in

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

. It contains only one species, ''Paracyrba wanlessi''. Its

microhabitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

are the water-filled hollow

internodes A stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant, the other being the root. It supports leaves, flowers and fruits, transports water and dissolved substances between the roots and the shoots in the xylem and phloem, engages in pho ...

of decaying

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in th ...

, where it preys on aquatic animals, especially

mosquito Mosquitoes, the Culicidae, are a Family (biology), family of small Diptera, flies consisting of 3,600 species. The word ''mosquito'' (formed by ''Musca (fly), mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish and Portuguese for ''little fly''. Mos ...

larvae.Zhang ''et al.'' 2006 ''Paracyrba wanlessi'' and '' Evarcha culicivora'', another jumping spider, are the only two spiders that have been experimentally studied and considered mosquito specialists, though the former preys on both adult and juvenile mosquitoes while the latter preys only on adult mosquitoes. In general only one specimen is found per occupied bamboo internode.Murphy & Murphy 2000: 294

Description

Females are up to 9 mm long, males 7 to 8. The spiders is generally dark colored. On the flattened carapace, there is a central whitish band, which is much larger in the female. On the

opisthosoma The opisthosoma is the posterior part of the body in some arthropods, behind the prosoma ( cephalothorax). It is a distinctive feature of the subphylum Chelicerata (arachnids, horseshoe crabs and others). Although it is similar in most respects ...

there are four to five transverse, yellowish bands, and a light area near the

spinnerets A spinneret is a silk-spinning organ of a spider or the larva of an insect. Some adult insects also have spinnerets, such as those borne on the forelegs of Embioptera. Spinnerets are usually on the underside of a spider's opisthosoma, and ar ...

. The long, thin legs are suited for their stealthy, non-jumping movements. The genitals are very similar to those of ''

Cyrba ''Cyrba'' is a genus of spiders in the family Salticidae (jumping spiders). The genus was erected by Hippolyte Lucas in 1846. Description ''Cyrba'' spiders are small to medium size spiders that are usually brightly colored. Their cephalothora ...

'', and ''P. wanlessi'' seems to have separated from it mainly due to its lifestyle.

Name

The genus name is a combination of the

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 ...

'' para'' "near to" and the name of the related genus ''

''. The species is named in honor of Fred R. Wanless, who contributed much to the knowledge about the subfamily

Spartaeinae The Spartaeinae are a subfamily of the spider family Salticidae (jumping spiders). The subfamily was established by Fred R. Wanless in 1984 to include the groups Boetheae, Cocaleae, Lineae, Codeteae and Cyrbeae, which in turn were defined by Eu ...

Footnotes

References

* Murphy, Frances & Murphy, John (2000): An Introduction to the Spiders of South East Asia. ''Malaysian Nature Society'', Kuala Lumpur. * Zhang, J.X.; Woon, J.R.W. & Li, D. (2006): A new genus and species of jumping spiders (Araneae:Salticidae:Spartaeinae) from Malaysia. ''The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology'' 54(2): 241-244
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Footnotes

* Salticidae.org

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q14653744, from2=Q1304617 Salticidae Monotypic Salticidae genera Invertebrates of Malaysia Spiders of Asia