Neon is a spider genus of the jumping spider family, Salticidae. Its described species occur mostly in Eurasia, with some species found in North and South America. One species, N. convolutus, is also found in Algeria. Two species are known from Australia, N. australis and N. taylori. N. australis has palp morphology and fringing on its first pair of legs very similar to that seen in N. nojimai Ikeda 1995, from Japan. N. taylori is most similar in morphology to N. sumatranus from Indonesia and N. kovblyuki from the Crimea and elsewhere. The genus is common and widespread in litter throughout Australia, from the highlands of Tasmania through the hot, dry inland to the wet tropics and includes many undescribed species.Richardson, B. J. (2013). New unidentate jumping spider genera (Araneae: Salticidae) from Australia. Zootaxa 3716: 460-474.
Spiders in Neon are tiny to small, usually less than 5mm in body length. In the genus definition it says "Small unidentate spiders ranging from about 1.4 to 3.0mm in length." A precise definition of the genus was provided by Gertsch & Ivie (1955). Lohmander (1945) first established a subgenus Dicroneon for Neon levis (Simon). Neon reticulatus (Blackwall) and its relatives were assigned by Gertsch & Ivie to another subgenus, Neon.Logunov, D. V. (1998a). The spider genus Neon Simon, 1876 (Araneae, Salticidae) in SE Asia, with notes on the genitalia and skin pore structures. Bulletin of the British Arachnological Society 11: 15-22
The molecular phylogeny of the Salticidae developed by Maddison and co-workers places Neon in the Astioida and most closely related to the Australian-based Astiae radiation. It is possible as a consequence, that Neon is an originally Australian genus that has spread to other regions. However the only species of this genus sequenced (Maddison and Hedin 2003; Bodner and Maddison 2012), N. nelli, belongs within the subgenus Neon, unlike all the presently known Australian species that are more similar to members of the subgenus Dicroneon from the oriental region.
Species , the World Spider Catalog accepted the following species:
Neon acoreensis Wunderlich, 2008 – Azores Neon australis Richardson, 2013 – South Australia Neon avalonus Gertsch & Ivie, 1955 – United States Neon caboverdensis Schmidt & Krause, 1998 – Cape Verde Islands Neon convolutus Denis, 1937 – Spain, France, Algeria Neon ellamae Gertsch & Ivie, 1955 – USA Neon kiyotoi Ikeda, 1995 – Japan Neon kovblyuki Logunov, 2004 – Ukraine Neon levis (Simon, 1871) – Palearctic Neon minutus Zabka, 1985 – Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan Neon muticus (Simon, 1871) – Corsica Neon nelli Peckham & Peckham, 1888 – USA, Canada Neon nigriceps Bryant, 1940 – Cuba Neon ningyo Ikeda, 1995 – China, Japan Neon nojimai Ikeda, 1995 – Japan Neon pictus Kulczynski, 1891 – Southeastern Europe to Central Asia Neon pixii Gertsch & Ivie, 1955 – USA Neon plutonus Gertsch & Ivie, 1955 – USA Neon punctulatus Karsch, 1880 – Bolivia Neon rayi (Simon, 1875) – Southern, Central Europe to Kazakhstan, Israel Neon reticulatus (Blackwall, 1853) (type species) – Holarctic Neon robustus Lohmander, 1945 – Western Europe Neon sumatranus Logunov, 1998 – Malaysia, Indonesia, New Guinea Neon taylori Richardson, 2013 – New South Wales, Victoria Neon valentulus Falconer, 1912 – Europe to Central Asia Neon wangi Peng & Li, 2006 – China Neon zonatus Bao & Peng, 2002 – Taiwan
References
External links
Photograph of N. levis Picture of N. nellii Bao, Y.-H. & Peng, X.-J. (2002). Six New Species of Jumping Spiders (Araneae: Salticidae) from Hui-Sun Experimental Forest Station, Taiwan. Zoological Studies 41(4): 403–411. PDF - includes Neon zonatus Richardson, B. J. (2013). New unidentate jumping spider genera (Araneae: Salticidae) from Australia. Zootaxa 3716: 460-474.