The Salticidae of Minor Asia and the Near East remain poorly studied(Logunov, 2009) and the arachnological investigations is still poor in Iraq. Family Salticidae which is known as jumping spiders are geographically cosmopolitan in distribution contains more than 500 described genera and about 5 000 described species (Maddison et al., 2008) making it the largest family of spiders with about 13% of all species.

Salticidae are among the easiest to distinguish from similar spider families because of the shape of the cephalothorax and their eye patterns (Ubick et al., 2005). The families closest to Salticidae in general appearance are the Corinnidae (distinguished also by prominent spines on the back four legs), the Oxyopidae (distinguished by very prominent spines on all legs), and the Thomisidae (the crab spiders, distinguished by their front four legs, which are very long and powerful), none of these families however, have eyes that resemble those of the Salticidae (Metzner, 2012). Conversely, the legs of jumping spiders are not covered with any very prominent spines. Their front four legs generally are larger than the hind four, but not as dramatically so as those of the crab spiders (Peng et al., 2002).

Diagnosis: Male, body length about 8mm, normal spider-like habitus (no ant-like or beetle-like)with orange habitus coloration,unidentant cheliceral teeth. The ratio of length: width of sternum is greater than 2:1, and first legs are longer than the second legs.Striking white haired pedipalps, the spinnerets are long and hairy at the tips and equal in size and not observe from dorsal view (Figure 1). No females of this spider were collected.

Figure 1 ♂Philaeus chrysops, A:General habitus; B and C: Arrangement of eyes; D: Unidentant cheliceral teeth (t); E: Pedipalp; F: Spinneret

 

Figure 2 ♀ Plexippus paykulli, A: General habitus; B and C: Arrangement of eyes; D: Unidentant cheliceralteeth(t); E: Sternum(s) and labium(i); F: Epigynum

Diagnosis: Male, body length about 9mm, normal spiders like habitus with black and white vertical strip coloration, unidentant cheliceral teeth, sternum length: width is lesser than 2:1, labium wider than long, border of sternum narrower than labium. The palpus is brown with black hairs and has retrolaterally tibial apophysis (Figure 3). No mature females of this species were collected.

Figure 3 ♂ Saitis leighii, A: General habitus; B and C: Arrangement of eyes; D: Unidentant cheliceral teeth (t); E: Pedipalp; F: Sternum

The present study is based on the species which were collected from the Mergasor locality which is located in the north eastern of Erbil governorate/Iraq (Figure 4). Mergasor (44°30ʹ E, 36°45ʹ N) is 1158meter above the sea level, maximum temperature in summer is 42℃ and minimum temperature in winter is -11℃ (Joint Humanitarian Information Center, 2004).

Figure 4 Site of spiders colle

Ubick D., Paquin P., Cushing P. E., Roth V., 2005, Spiders of North America: An Identif-ication Manual, American Arachnological Society, pp.205-216