Uapou is a genus of linyphiid

Linyphiidae

Linyphiidae is a family of spiders, including more than 4,300 described species in 578 genera worldwide. This makes Linyphiidae the second largest family of spiders after the Salticidae. New species are still being discovered throughout the world, and the family is poorly known...

 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...

s with one species that occurs only Ua Pou, one of the Marquesas Islands

Marquesas Islands

The Marquesas Islands enana and Te Fenua `Enata , both meaning "The Land of Men") are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southern Pacific Ocean. The Marquesas are located at 9° 00S, 139° 30W...

.

H.W. Levi transferred it to the family Symphytognathidae

Symphytognathidae

The Symphytognathidae are a spider family with 44 described species in six genera.The minute species Patu digua with its body size of only 0.37mm is considered to be one of the smallest spiders in the world.-Distribution:...

 in 1972, but this was rejected by Brignoli in 1980.

Name

The genus is named after the island Ua Pou on the Marquesas Islands. The describer, Lucien Berland, named several genera after islands in the Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

 during the 1930s. Other names derived from islands in the Marquesas are Uahuka

Uahuka

Uahuka is a genus of linyphiid spiders with two species that occur only on the Marquesas Islands.H.W. Levi transferred it to the family Symphytognathidae in 1972, but this was rejected by Brignoli in 1980....

and Nukuhiva

Nukuhiva

Nukuhiva is a genus of pisaurid spiders with a single species that occurs only on the Marquesas Islands. It has been found on Nuku Hiva and on Ua Huka, a smaller island about 25 km to the east.-Name:...

.

The species name is derived from Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

maculata "spotted".

Further reading

• Levi, H. W. (1972). Taxonomic-nomenclatural notes on misplaced theridiid spiders (Araneae: Theridiidae), with observations on Anelosimus. Trans. Am. microsc. Soc. 91: 533-538.
• Berland, L. (1935). Nouvelles araignées marquisiennes. Bernice P. Bishop Mus. Bull. 142: 31-63.