Palpimanus


Palpimanus is a genus of palp-footed spiders that was first described by Léon [Jean Marie Dufour] in 1820.

Description

Body size ranges from 6-13 mm total length. The carapace is sub-oval in outline and anteriorly truncated. The cephalic region is evenly rounded, sloping gently towards the thoracic region. The fovea is distinct and covered with a hard, coriaceous granular epidermis.
The eyes are eight in number arranged in two rows. The posterior row is straight or recurved with posterior median eyes usually closer to each other than to the laterals. The anterior median eyes are the largest of all the eyes.
The abdomen is ovate with cuticle often coriaceous, and the epigastric region is heavily sclerotised, forming a ring-shaped scutum extending dorsally to encircle the pedicel.
The anterior pair of legs are enlarged with femur I greatly expanded dorsally, and leg I is much stronger than the other three pairs. The patellae are elongated while the metatarsi and tarsi are reduced in size. A thick scopula with spatulate setae is present distally on the prolateral surface of the tibia, metatarsi and tarsi. The tarsal claws are dissimilar in size with anterior tarsi having extremely small claws that are larger on the posterior legs.

Species

, this genus includes 43 species: