Kingdom Animalia Class Arachnida Suborder Araneomorphae Scientific name Talavera aequipes | Phylum Arthropoda Order Araneae Family Salticidae Rank Species | |
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Similar Heliophanus flavipes, Pseudeuophrys erratica, Euophrys frontalis, Phlegra fasciata, Heliophanus auratus | ||
Talavera aequipes is a small jumping spider that is found in Eurasia. It is very hard to distinguish from several very similar species, but is the most frequent of these spiders in Central Europe. It is small enough to reside comfortably in snail shells of down to 5 mm length during winter, where they also lay their eggs. Sometimes it shares a larger shell with Pellenes tripunctatus, where T. aequipes lives deep inside, and P. tripunctatus is found in the larger opening.
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Appearance
Males only reach a body size of two mm, females up to 3 millimetres (0.12 in). The body is covered with brown to yellowish hairs, with striped legs. The female has yellow palps, the male has a yellow mask.
Distribution
The species is widely distributed in Europe, but is also found up to Eastern Siberia. It lives mostly on dry meadows.
Name
The species name is Latin for "equal feet".
Subspecies
The subspecies Talavera aequipes ludio (Simon, 1871) occurs only on Corsica. Earlier synonyms are: