Maratus caeruleus Waldock 2013

Jürgen C. Otto & David E. Hill, 2014, Spiders of the mungaich group from Western Australia (Araneae: Salticidae: Euophryinae: Maratus), with one new species from Cape Arid, Peckhamia 112 (1), pp. 1-35 : 10

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.5281/zenodo.1292576

publication LSID

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:B53D2909-07C3-4E9E-B8F2-C358650E78AF

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5617877

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/E3602827-FFFF-FB73-9762-F9FEFABD8BBB

treatment provided by

Plazi

scientific name

Maratus caeruleus Waldock 2013
status

 

Maratus caeruleus Waldock 2013 View in CoL

Maratus caeruleus ( Figure 1 View Figure 1 ), with a reported male body length of 7.89 mm, is perhaps one of the largest Maratus ( Waldock 2013, Fig. 25 View Figure 25 however depicts a body length ~5 mm). It is known only from type specimens collected on the ground (22 OCT 2008), on Middle Island in the Recherche Archipelago just 15 km from the type locality of the related M. avibus ( Figure 13 View Figure 13 ). Like the smaller M. avibus , this spider lacks a central dark figure on the dorsal opisthosoma. Shallow seas presently separate this Archipelago from the mainland, but these were elevated areas on the mainland during the last glacial maximum (LGM, ~15- 20Ka). M. caeruleus may represent a case of island gigantism (or the island rule; Lomolino 2005). Given the small size of Middle Island, a difference in selection based on community composition, as well as the rapid evolution (genetic drift) associated with a small island population ( Ellstrand and Elam 1993), may have led to a recent, rapid divergence of M. caeruleus from the mainland species M. avibus .

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Arachnida

Order

Araneae

Family

Salticidae

Genus

Maratus

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