The December Spider of the Month (SOTM) is this green asemonea jumping spider (Asemonea cf. clara; Salticidae), photographed by Simon Eunete van Wyk-Schumacher in Gulu near East London, Eastern Cape.
Regarding this find, Eunete said:
“We found this cute little spider (about 4mm long) on top of a leaf, but as we got closer it quickly zipped underneath. Intrigued, we thought we’d have a little peek to see where it went. Apparently it spanned a lovely little house just underneath the leaf, it looks a bit similar to the gladwrap house of a Bum-Eyed Spider (Bijoaraneus legonensis). Although the web makes it a bit difficult to see, we could still get a few shots of this lovely spider. It has such soft pastel colours, pale mint green and powdery peach with black dots and a dollop of cream on the head.”
Female Asemonea species are mostly a translucent green, while the males are usually darker, sometimes even black. Like the very similar Lyssomanes species from the Americas, one can see these spiders’ cone-shaped central eyes move inside their head. When the spider is looking directly at you, the eyes are black, but when they’re looking elsewhere, they are green. It is also believed that they can look through their heads, which would be easier with slightly translucent spiders like these ones. These spiders live in retreats of fine silk sheets spun under leaves. As can be seen from the photo, the spider is well visible through the silk retreat.
I don’t know what Asemonea means, but clara is Latin for “clear”, referring to the pale colouration of this species, according to Wanda Wesolowska and Charles Haddad, who described this species in 2013.
There are 26 recorded Asemonea species in the world. They occur mostly in Africa, with a few found in Asia. Four species are recorded from South Africa, and they occur in the eastern, more humid half of the country. The genus (type species Lyssomanes tenuipes) was described in 1869 by Octavius Pickard-Cambridge, who was an English clergyman and zoologist who described more than 900 spider species.
Of 190 people who voted, Eunete’s photo received 89 (47%) votes. To say that this contest was close is an understatement. At times the feather-legged proevippa wolf spider was first, then they were tied, then the Asemonea led, and so forth. The last time a jumping spider won SOTM was in May 2023, 19 months ago! This is Eunete’s first SOTM, and hopefully one of many more to come. Congratulations, Eunete!
