Laufeia is a spidergenus of the jumping spider family, Salticidae, with a mainly Asian distribution,[1] where they are found on tree trunks and branches or among leaf litter.[2]
Laufeia species are mostly small, hairy, brownish spiders. The chelicera usually has a tooth with two cusps on the rear-facing edge. The male generally has a slightly hardened plate (scutum) on the upper surface of the abdomen. The genitalia vary considerably between species; for example, the male palpal bulb has either a long or short embolus, which may or may not be coiled.[2]
Four more Laufeia species were known to Andrzej Bohdanowicz and Jerzy Prószyński in 1987; they doubted that three of them belonged in the genus.[4] In 2012, Prószyński and Christa Deeleman-Reinhold split off some Laufeia species into the genera Orcevia and Junxattus, noting the diversity of genital structures. A molecular and morphological study in 2015 showed that the original circumscription of Laufeia constituted a strongly supported clade, and Junxia Zhang and Wayne Maddison restored all the species to Laufeia, arguing that strong sexual selection could produce genital diversity even in closely related species.[2]
1 2 3 Zhang, J.X. & Maddison, W.P. (2015), "Genera of euophryine jumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae), with a combined molecular-morphological phylogeny", Zootaxa, 3938 (1): 1–147, doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3938.1, PMID25947489
↑ Simon, E. (1889), "Etudes arachnologiques. 21e Mémoire. XXXIII. Descriptions de quelques espèces receillies au Japon, par A. Mellotée", Annales de la Société Entomologique de France, 8: 248–252
↑ Bohdanowicz, A. & Prószyński, J. (1987), "Systematic studies on East Palaearctic Salticidae (Araneae), IV. Salticidae of Japan", Annales Zoologici, Warszawa, 41: 43–151
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