Messua (spider)

Messua
	Male Messua limbata
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Infraorder:	Araneomorphae
Family:	Salticidae
Subfamily:	Salticinae
Genus:	Messua; Peckham & Peckham, 1896
Type species
	Messua desidiosa; Peckham & Peckham, 1896
Species
	See text.

Messua is a spider genus of the family Salticidae (jumping spiders).

Etymology

The genus name is derived from Messua, a female character from Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book. Other salticid genera with names of Kipling's characters are Akela, Bagheera and Nagaina.

Taxonomy

The genus was first described in 1896 by American arachnologists George and Elizabeth Peckham based on the type species Messua desidiosa.[1]

The genus Messua was synonymized with Zygoballus by Eugène Simon in 1903. After examining the type specimen for Messua desidiosa, Simon commented that it was "much less divergent from typical Zygoballus than [the Peckhams'] description would indicate."[2] This was reversed by Wayne Maddison in 1996, and Messua restored as a valid genus. Maddison also transferred several species that had previously been placed in Metaphidippus into Messua.[3]

Species

Messua centralis (Peckham & Peckham, 1896) – Panama
Messua dentigera (F. O. P-Cambridge, 1901) – Guatemala to Panama
Messua desidiosa Peckham & Peckham, 1896 – Costa Rica, Panama
Messua donalda (Kraus, 1955) – El Salvador
Messua latior (Roewer, 1955) – Panama
Messua laxa (Chickering, 1946) – Panama
Messua limbata (Banks, 1898) – United States, Mexico
Messua moma (F. O. P.-Cambridge, 1901) – Guatemala to Guyana
Messua octonotata (F. O. P.-Cambridge, 1901) – Central America
Messua pura (Bryant, 1948) – Mexico
Messua tridentata (F. O. P.-Cambridge, 1901) – Mexico

References

Peckham, George; Peckham, Elizabeth (1896). "Spiders of the family Attidae from Central America and Mexico" (PDF). Occasional Papers of the Natural History Society of Wisconsin. 3 (1): 1–101.
Simon, Eugène (1897–1903). Histoire Naturelle des Araignées (in French) (2nd ed.). Paris. p. 863.
Maddison, Wayne P. (1996). "Pelegrina Franganillo and other jumping spiders formerly placed in the genus Metaphidippus (Araneae: Salticidae)". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 154: 215–368.

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[Peckham1896-1] Peckham, George; Peckham, Elizabeth (1896). "Spiders of the family Attidae from Central America and Mexico" (PDF). Occasional Papers of the Natural History Society of Wisconsin. 3 (1): 1–101.

[Simon1903-2] Simon, Eugène (1897–1903). Histoire Naturelle des Araignées (in French) (2nd ed.). Paris. p. 863.

[Maddison1996-3] Maddison, Wayne P. (1996). "Pelegrina Franganillo and other jumping spiders formerly placed in the genus Metaphidippus (Araneae: Salticidae)". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 154: 215–368.