Treasure of the month

August 2016

Australian jumping spider

The treasure of the month August is a magnificent Australian jumping spider (Jotus auripes), which is especially common in the region around Sydney. Danilo Harms, head of the Department of Arachnids and Millipedes at LIB, was able to observe it in the wild during his professional years in Australia. Now he has discovered the holotype - the animal after which the species was described - in LIB's Arachnological Collection. He knows "this species was first brought back during a collecting trip for the Godeffroy Museum in Hamburg and was scientifically described in 1881. In general, the LIB collection is famous for its many Australian arachnids and is an important basis for systematic research."