''Rugathodes bellicosus'' is a small theridiid spider that occurs in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, including

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. It is usually found on high ground, but also occurs on coasts. They live under large stones. In

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

, spiders at low altitude are only found in small caves. These specimens are not very pigmented. Other specimens that live in higher elevations live more in the open and are generally darker in color. The variation seems to be genetic rather than environmentally induced.Ružička, V. (1988). Problems of ''Bathyphantes eumenis'' and its occurrence in Czechoslovakia (Araneae, Linyphiidae). Věstn. Česk. Spol. Zool. 52:149-155.

Name

The species name is derived from

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''bellicosus'' "bellicose".

References

Theridiidae Spiders of Europe Spiders of Russia Spiders described in 1873 {{Theridiidae-stub