Macopaeus is a spider

Spider

Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...

 genus of the Salticidae family (jumping spiders). Its only described species, Macopaeus spinosus, is endemic

Endemic (ecology)

Endemism is the ecological state of being unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, nation or other defined zone, or habitat type; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, all species of lemur are endemic to the...

 to Madagascar

Madagascar

The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...

.

Two other species (M. celebensis Merian, 1911 and M. madagascarensis Peckham & Peckham

George and Elizabeth Peckham

George Williams Peckham and Elizabeth Maria Gifford Peckham were early American teachers, taxonomists, ethologists, arachnologists, and entomologists, specializing in animal behavior and in the study of jumping spiders and wasps.-Lives and careers:George Peckham was born in Albany,...

, 1903) were described in this genus in the early 20th century. However, these were transferred to the genus Brettus

Brettus

Brettus is a genus of jumping spiders. Its name comes from the Greek, βρεττυς, meaning one who does not fight. Its six described species are found in southern Asia from India to China and Sulawesi, with a single species endemic to Madagascar....

in 1980.

Further reading

(1980): A revision of the spider genus Macopaeus (Araneae: Salticidae). Bull. Br. Mus. nat. Hist. (Zool.) 38: 219-223.

External links

• Salticidae.org: Diagnostic drawings