Saitis Simon 1876
Creators: name: Prószyński, Jerzy
name: Noordam, Aart
name: Oger, Pierre
name: Schäfer, Michael
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Salticidae
Saitis

description: Gen. Saitis Simon, 1876   
Figures 3, 4  
 Remarks. Since Drobroruka (2004: 39) placed Euophrys imitatu s (Simon, 1868) in Mediterranean genus Saitis, popularly known by one of its species - S. barbipes, that genus requires some attention. There are three other nominal species of Saitis in Mediterranean and two species in Australia. The mutual behavioral features of Saitis - its peculiar courtship dance with lifted III pair of legs, strikingly colored for semaphore signaling, with " bottle-brush " like dense fur of black setae on metatarsus III, contrasting with strikingly white tarsus III, that behavior being enriched by lifting strikingly colorful abdomen in a number of Australian Maratus species, and some other genera (see video at http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7qmpz comparing S. barbipes dance with that of Australian Maratus). There are suggestions that Saitis in Europe may be immigrant from Australia (Hill (2009)). However, diversity in internals structure of epigyne of Saitis requires revision.   
 3 Otto & Hill (2017) - discoverers of the proliferation of the genus Maratus, divided that enormous genus into 15 provisional groups of species: anomalus (p. 1 in Otto & Hill (2017), calcitrans (p: 4), chrysomelas (p: 6), fimbriatus (p: 7), harrisi (p: 8), linnaei (p: 9), mungaich (p: 9),, pavonis (p: 12), spicatus (p: 14), tasmanicus (p: 15), velutinus (p: 6), vespa (p: 17), vespertilio (p: 18), volans (p: 19), not assigned yet to any group (p: 19)] some of which apparently deserving elevation to new genera status, shown in their catalog, each species illustrated by color photographs of a male, figures in brackets refer to pages in their paper. Grouping by external appearance, the division has provisional character, the authors stress that research are in the development stage and further discoveries of species and genera are expected. The group deserves taxonomic revision, with state of art analysis of internal structures of epigyne and palps.   
 Type species. Attus barbipes Simon, 1868 = Sanities barbipes (Simon, 1868)   
 Material. " Saitis barbipes, m,f., France: Fontaine de Vacluse, 14-15 April, 1966, leg. J. Prószyński", coll. MiZ-PAN, Warszawa. Also rich documentation in literature, photos and especially videos).   
 Diagnosis. In males characterizing behavior of nuptial dance, adaptations of leg III to semaphore signaling, while legs I are devoid of semaphore adaptations. Palps confronting to the general type of EUOPHRYINES, but with various differences, not yet summarized as indicating genus. Epigyne and its internal structures represent various types, not yet summarized as indicating genus.   
 Description. See diversity of males and females (Figs 3, 4 A-I, L-N, Q-S)) and especially documentation of dance gestures by Aart Noordam (Figs 3 M-M9). Palps and epigyne structures are shown on Figs 4 A-I and 5D-G, comparison of legs III on Figs 4 Q-S.   
 Distribution. Mediterranean and Australia [?].   
 Composition. Mediterranean species: Saitis barbipes (Simon, 1868) (type species) (Figs 3 A-F, 4A-D, G, L, Q), Saitis tauricus (Figs 3 G-L, 4E-F1, H, M, R), Saitis graecus (Figs 3 M-M9, 4I, N, S). Epigyne and its internal structures of S. tauricus and S. graecus stand out and matching of their epigyne with general appearances of respective females should be verified.   
 MISPLACED Mediterranean species: " Saitis" ariadneae (Figs 4K, P, U), " Saitis" imitata (Figs 2 A-N), " Saitis" sengleti (Figs 4J, O, T) (see below).
description: Published as part of Prószyński, Jerzy, Noordam, Aart, Oger, Pierre & Schäfer, Michael, 2018, Delimitation of Mediterranean genus Iberattus gen. n., with comments on genus Saitis (Araneae: Salticidae) *, pp. 82-98 in Ecologica Montenegrina 18 on pages 87-88, DOI: 10.37828/em.2018.18.6, http://zenodo.org/record/13360183