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Genus Peckhamia

Antlike Jumping Spider - Peckhamia - male

An ant mimic jumping spider, Peckhamia, maybe P. americana or P. picata? - Peckhamia

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Chelicerata (Chelicerates)

Class Arachnida (Arachnids)

Order Araneae (Spiders)

Infraorder Araneomorphae (True Spiders)

No Taxon (Entelegynae)

Family Salticidae (Jumping Spiders)

Genus Peckhamia

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

See the World Spider Catalog.

Explanation of Names

Peckhamia Simon, 1901

The genus is named in honor of arachnologists George and Elizabeth Peckham (Wikipedia).

Numbers

Their are 4 described species and several undescribed species in North America (B. Cutler - pers. comm.):

Peckhamia americana (Peckham et Peckham, 1892) Mexico, USA

Peckhamia picata (Hentz, 1846) USA, Canada

Peckhamia scorpionia (Hentz, 1846) USA, Canada

Peckhamia seminola Gertsch, 1936 USA: Florida

Size

2.5 - 5 mm

Identification

Small, elongated jumping spiders with a constricted abdomen, apparently mimics of ants.

"Peckhamia may be easily confused with Synageles, but in Peckhamia, the carapace is not as flat, being more convex in the cephalic area, and has a sharp declevity [sic] behind the row III eyes" (1). Most Peckhamia have three pairs of ventral spines on leg I tibia (most Synageles have two pairs). The eye region occupies half of the carapace in Peckhamia and more than half the carapace in Synageles. There are also differences in the genitalia - males of Peckhamia show a spiraled embolus, while Synageles males show an embolus in the form of a "simple straight rod, curved arc, or short spike". The epigynum in Peckhamia females has sclerotized anterior rims in the form of two arcs (lacking in Synageles).

Range

This genus is presumably restricted to the New World.

Remarks

Several changes made to this page at the suggestion of Tim Manolis and also inspired by email correspondence between Tim and B. Cutler - Sept. 2013 (KS).

"According to the salticid experts, all Peckhamia west of the Great Plains are undescribed species." -Dr. Lenny Vincent via email correspondence 05/03/2017

See Also

Synemosyna--another ant mimic

Sarinda--another ant mimic

Synageles

Print References

Kaston, p. 245, fig. 624--Peckhamia picata (2)

B. Cutler, 1987 (1)

Spiders of North America (3)

Internet References

Wikipedia--Peckhamia

Works Cited

1.	A revision of the American species of the antlike jumping spider genus Synageles (Araneae, Salticidae) Bruce Cutler. 1987. Journal of Arachnology 15(3): 321-348.

2.	How to Know the Spiders B. J. Kaston. 1978. WCB/McGraw-Hill.

3.	Spiders of North America: An Identification Manual D. Ubick, P. Paquin, P.E. Cushing and V. Roth (eds). 2005. American Arachnological Society.

Contributed by Lynette Elliott on 22 November, 2005 - 7:51am
Additional contributions by cotinis, cheins, kschnei, Laura P.
Last updated 30 December, 2022 - 10:20am

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