Kingdom Animalia Class Arachnida Family Salticidae | Phylum Arthropoda Order Araneae Subfamily Heliophaninae | |
Marchena is a spider genus of the Salticidae family (jumping spiders). Its only described species, M. minuta, is only found in the United States. It dwells on the barks of conifers along the west coast, especially California, Washington and Nevada. Marchena is the only North American species of Heliophaninae.
Contents
It forms a monophyletic group with the genera Afraflacilla, Pseudicius and Festucula.
Description
This species can easily be distinguished from others in its range by the tubercles on the first femur of its first legs. M. minuta has a body length of about 4 mm.
Name
The genus name is probably derived from the Spanish city of Marchena, Seville. As witnessed by other generic names, the describers had a habit of naming taxa after places unrelated to the species' distribution. The species name is Latin for "small, minute".