Zygoballus incertus is a species of jumping spider

Jumping spider

The jumping spider family contains more than 500 described genera and about 5,000 described species, making it the largest family of spiders with about 13% of all species. Jumping spiders have some of the best vision among invertebrates and use it in courtship, hunting and navigation...

 which occurs in Panama

Panama

Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...

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History and taxonomy

The species was first described from a female specimen by the entomologist Nathan Banks

Nathan Banks

Nathan Banks was an American entomologist noted for his work on neuroptera, megaloptera, hymenoptera, and acarina . He started work on mites in 1880 with the USDA...

 in 1929 as Atelurius

Atelurius

Atelurius is a genus of jumping spiders. Its only species, A. segmentatus, occurs in Venezuela and Brazil.-References: : , version 8.0. American Museum of Natural History....

 incertus. Arachnologist Arthur M. Chickering

Arthur M. Chickering

Arthur Merton Chickering was a U.S. arachnologist. He was born on March 23, 1887 in North Danville, Vermont and died on May 24, 1974.He studied in Yale University under Alexander Petrunkevitch until 1913. In 1916 he earned a master of science degree in cytology and in 1927 a Ph.D. for cytological...

 described the species, including a male allotype

Paratype

Paratype is a technical term used in the scientific naming of species and other taxa of organisms. The exact meaning of the term paratype when it is used in zoology is not the same as the meaning when it is used in botany...

, in his 1946 paper, "The Salticidae (Spiders) of Panama". Chickering expressed doubts about whether the species belonged to Atelurius: "I am unable to come to any decision as to the correct placement of this species... I know nothing better to do with it for the present than to retain it here pending further knowledge." In 1987, arachnologist María Elena Galiano reassigned Chickering's male allotype to Sassacus. Regarding the female type specimen, she remarked that it was "without a doubt fissidentate, and should be excluded from [Atelurius]." Citing the fact that Chickering noted similarities with Zygoballus

Zygoballus

Zygoballus is a genus of jumping spiders found in North and South America.-Taxonomy and history:The genus was first described in 1885 by American arachnologists George and Elizabeth Peckham based on the type species Zygoballus rufipes...

, Galiano transferred the species out of Atelurius and into Zygoballus. Characteristics of the male were described in 1996 by Wayne Maddison.

External links

• Zygoballus incertus at Worldwide database of jumping spiders
• Zygoballus incertus at Global Species Database of Salticidae (Araneae)
• Zygoballus incertus at Salticidae: Diagnostic Drawings Library