Colonus is a genus of spiders, native to America, with 14 described species, distributed from the U.S. to Argentina. In the latter country, five species have been recorded so far (in the WSC, Colonus melanogaster is only cited for Brazil, which is why four species are mentioned for Argentina). Published records of C. melanogaster exist for Uruguay and Argentina (including two specimens collected in C and N Argentina by Gonzalo Rubio, housed at the Instituto de Biología Subtropical, in Misiones).
Unlike other jumping spiders, they do not make an alternating up-and-down movement with their palps (either to announce their presence or interact with their prey, which are commonly other spiders). They generally move very slowly, although when disturbed, they can move very quickly.
C. melanogaster is native to Brazil, Uruguay, and C-NE Argentina, and is common in grassland environments with trees (J. Baigorria, personal communication, February 8, 2021), as well as in urban green spaces. In Brazil, it was also recorded as a resident in a commercial plantation of Eucalyptus grandis, being more frequent in the warm and humid season. It has been observed using the arboreal habitat by making shelters or nests, folding leaves in half, and covering them with very dense white silk.
External morphology description of both sexes based on personal observations of collected specimens:
It shows sexual dimorphism. The male has an orange cephalothorax, sometimes light but generally darker, with a black band on the lower posterior part; eyes surrounded by black spots; a white tuft of hair between the posterior lateral eyes and a darker area in front of it, surrounded by a perimeter of more orange color, with white toward the area of the anterior middle eyes; parallel chelicerae and glabrous clypeus, both the same basal color as the cephalothorax (sometimes slightly darker); yellowish abdomen (sometimes somewhat greenish), with two parallel longitudinal lines of white hairs enclosing a darker central area, and some small black spots; pale yellow legs up to the apical femur, very dark from the patella (giving the appearance of “black stockings”). The female has a generally paler coloration.
Author of this compilation: Román Montero
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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