Cosmophasis lami Berry, Beatty & Prószyński 1997

Hurni-Cranston, Tiziano & Hill, David E., 2021, Three new jumping spiders of the genus Cosmophasis from Wallacea (Araneae: Salticidae: Chrysillini), Peckhamia 228 (1), pp. 1-84 : 27-31

5. Cosmophasis lami Berry, Beatty & Prószyński 1997

C. squamata Saaristo 2002 , syn. Figures 24-27 , Map ( Figure 1 ) #24

This less colourful spider is the most widely-distributed member of the genus, ranging from the Seychelles Islands in the west to the Society Islands in the east ( Figure 1 ). Little is known of the behaviour of this spider. Representatives from several different locations are shown here to illustrate the relatively uniform appearance of adults ( Figures 24-27 ).

Diagnosis. Males are more uniform orange in colouration, with some iridescence on the sides of the carapace ( Figure 24 :5), and may have a narrow or indistinct black line along the anterior lateral margins of the opisthosoma. Females vary more in appearance, also with some iridescence on the sides of the carapace ( Figure 26 :4), a wide, off white marginal band on either side of the opisthosoma, and dark markings that may include transverse bands on the dorsal opisthosoma. See Żabka & Waldock (2012) for a recent redescription of this species.

Figures

Figure 1. Known occurrence of Cosmophasis species in Sunda, Sahul and adjacent oceanic islands. Better-known species are identified in the key at upper right. See Appendix 1 for identification of the other species, most know from a single locality, by number. The new species described here are from Ambon and the Banda Islands within the Wallacean region (small yellow rectangle near the center), shown in more detail in Figure 2. Localities are based on references cited in Appendix 1, as well as reliable photographs posted in iNaturalist and FLICKR. Note that some records of C. thalassina (52, generally found to the south) and C. umbratica (57, generally found to the north) are most likely confused, as separation of these species may not be possible. Background image courtesy of NASA/USGS/Landsat.

Figure 24. Adult male Cosmophasis lami from the Singapore Botanic Garden. 5, Note the violet iridescence on the side of the carapace. Photographs © Nicky Bay, used with permission.

Figure 25. Two adult male Cosmophasis lami. 1-5, Male from Bali. 6-10, Male from Port Moresby, Papua. Photographs (6-10) © Wayne P. Maddison, used under a CC BY 3.0 license.

Figure 26. Four adult female Cosmophasis lami. 1-2, Port Moresby, Papua. 3-4, Singapore. 5, Simpang Ampat, Malaysia. 6-9, Home Fitness Corner, Singapore. Photo credits: 1-2, © Wayne P. Maddison, used under a CC BY 3.0 license; 3-4, © Marcus Ng, used under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license (Ng 2021a, 2021b); 5, © Richard Ong, used under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license (Ong 2019); 6-9, © Nicky Bay, used with permission.

Figure 27. Three adult female Cosmophasis lami from Bali (1-5, 6, 7-8).