Epeus is a genus of the spider family Salticidae (jumping spiders). They are often found on broad-leaved plants or shrubs of rain forest, or in gardens of Southeast Asia.Murphy & Murphy 2000: 298f
The genus is similar to Plexippoides.Zhang et al. 2003
Description Like most spiders, they exhibit sexual dimorphism. Females are 7–9 mm long, males 6–9 mm. They are long-legged with a long opisthosoma, and quite colorful. Males have a characteristic v-shaped crest of raised, long hairs on the head, resembling a mohawk.
E. glorius, described in 1985, has a pale orange carapace with a deep orange crest of hairs. The three rear eye pairs have black surrounds with white squamose hairs, the opisthosoma is pale yellow. The four frontal legs of the male are brown with yellowish tarsi at the end, the other four legs are light brown. The legs of the female are pale yellow with black tips.
Distribution Members of this genus are distributed throughout southern Asia.
Name The generic name is derived from Epeius of Greek mythology.
Species , the World Spider Catalog accepts the following species: Epeus alboguttatus (Thorell, 1887) – China, Myanmar, Vietnam Epeus albus Prószyński, 1992 – India Epeus bicuspidatus (Song, Gu & Chen, 1988) – China, TaiwanChen, 2013 Epeus chilapataensis (Biswas & Biswas, 1992) – India Epeus daiqini Patoleta, Gardzińska & Żabka, 2020 – Thailand Epeus edwardsi Barrion & Litsinger, 1995 – Philippines Epeus exdomus Jastrzebski, 2010 – Nepal Epeus flavobilineatus (Doleschall, 1859) – Java Epeus furcatus Zhang, Song & Li, 2003 – Singapore Epeus glorius Zabka, 1985 – China, Taiwan, Vietnam Epeus guangxi Peng & Li, 2002 – China, Taiwan Epeus hawigalboguttatus Barrion & Litsinger, 1995 – Philippines Epeus indicus Prószyński, 1992 – India Epeus mirus (Peckham & Peckham, 1907) – Borneo Epeus pallidus Patoleta, Gardzińska & Żabka, 2020 – Thailand Epeus sumatranus Prószyński & Deeleman-Reinhold, 2012 – Sumatra Epeus szirakii Patoleta, Gardzińska & Żabka, 2020 – Thailand Epeus tener (Simon, 1877) – Java Epeus triangulopalpis Malamel, Nafin, Sudhikumar & Sebastian, 2019 – India
Footnotes
References Murphy, F. & Murphy, J. (2000): An Introduction to the Spiders of South East Asia. Malaysian Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur. Zhang, J. X.; Song, D. X. & Li, D. (2003): Six new and one newly recorded species of Salticidae (Arachnida: Araneae) from Singapore and Malaysia. The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 51(2):187-195. PDF (E. furcatus)
External links Salticidae.org: Diagnostic drawings and color photographs Photograph of E. flavobilineatus