Unusual Jumping Spider from the Philippines

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Subject: Mystery bug in the Philippines
Location: Philippines
June 19, 2014 7:08 am
Hi Guys,
Spotted this bug here in the Philippines and was wondering if you might now what it is? Seems golden in body colour. Many thanks!
Signature: Frank

Jumping Spider we presume
Jumping Spider we presume

Dear Frank,
We wish your image had more detail.  This appears to be a Spider, and our best guess is a Jumping Spider in the family Salticidae, however that is quite an unusual appendage at the end of the body.  We have not had any luck finding anything that matches this spider in appearance, but we will continue looking around on the web.

Hi Daniel and Frank:
You are right, Daniel, it is a Jumping Spider. It looks like a species of Mantisatta (Salticidae: Ballinae), a small genus with only two species. Mantisatta trucidans lives only on the island of Borneo and M. longicauda is endemic to the Philippines. According to Wikipedia “The genus name is combined from mantis (because of the long first legs) and the common salticid ending –attus”. The front legs in Frank’s photo don’t appear especially long but it looks like they may be folded under or perhaps around something. In all other respects it looks very similar to M. longicauda. The species name (longicauda) clearly refers to the unusually long and tail-like abdomen. Regards. Karl

6 thoughts on “Unusual Jumping Spider from the Philippines”

  3. Curiosity drove me to bring this ‘unusual jumping spider’ [same photo] to my own collection. I’ve added front legs a time or three. I have chopped off the elongated ‘tail.’ If it was originally the ‘Mantisatta longicauda’ – The photo is doctored/shopped, and was before you or I ever saw it. – I dare anyone to find another photo anything like this one, with a tail like that. [The tail seems to be a LEG fron a different spider? – No credentials here, but I am suspicious.

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