Jump to content

Cosmophasis umbratica

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Kaldari (talk | contribs) at 08:05, 10 June 2018 (No longer accurate). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Cosmophasis umbratica
Two Cosmophasis umbratica males in contest.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Phylum:
Class:
Order:
Family:
Genus:
Species:
C. umbratica
Binomial name
Cosmophasis umbratica
Simon, 1903
Species

see text

Cosmophasis umbratica is a species of jumping spider that occurs from India to Sumatra.

They are most frequently spotted on plants that are exposed to sunlight during later morning and early afternoon.[1]

Males have complex iridescent markings on the dorsal and lateral cephalothorax and on the lateral femora of all legs, and silvery white lines on the abdomen, while females have a green cephalothorax and a brown, white and black abdomen.[1]

C. umbratica shows extreme dimorphism when viewed under UV light: males reflect UV on all body parts that are displayed during intraspecific interaction, while females and juveniles do not reflect UV at all. It seems that C. umbratica uses this in sexual signaling. A similar phenomenon is found in some butterflies (for example, several species of Colias and Gonepteryx, both of the family Pieridae).[1]

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c Lim & Li, 2005

References

  • Lim, M.L.M. & Li, D. (2005). Extreme ultraviolet sexual dimorphism in jumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 89: 397-406. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.2006.00704.x (with photographs)