Aelurillus

Aelurillus are typically about 7 mm long in females, and up to five mm in males. They are stout, squat-shaped and rather furry, with females often uniformly mottled sandy brown, while males are often black, sometimes with a pattern and with light, annulated legs.[2]

Spiders in this genus mainly catch and feed on ants (myrmecophagy).

A Southeast Asian Aelurillus species has been observed to jump around 30-40 times its body length straight onto the back of a large gnaphosid spider and kill it.[3]

They like hot, dry, stony places or small bare open areas with dead twigs or similar amongst low vegetation.[2]

Aelurillus occurs in the Palaearctic and Africa, with a few species known from India (A. improvisus, A. minimontanus) and Sri Lanka (A. kronestedti, A. quadrimaculatus). Aelurillus subfestivus is found in Japan.

• Aelurillus aeruginosus (Simon, 1871) – Mediterranean
• Aelurillus afghanus Azarkina, 2006 – Afghanistan
• Aelurillus andreevae Nenilin, 1984 – Central Asia
• Aelurillus angularis Prószynski, 2000 – Israel
• Aelurillus ater (Kroneberg, 1875) – Central Asia
• Aelurillus balearus Azarkina, 2006 – Canary Islands, Balearic Islands
• Aelurillus basseleti (Lucas, 1846) – Algeria, Tunisia
• Aelurillus blandus (Simon, 1871) – Greece, Crete
• Aelurillus bokerinus Prószynski, 2003 – Israel
• Aelurillus bosmansi Azarkina, 2006 – Spain
• Aelurillus brutus Wesołowska, 1996 – Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan
• Aelurillus catherinae Prószynski, 2000 – Egypt
• Aelurillus catus Simon, 1886 – Senegal
• Aelurillus cognatus (O. P.-Cambridge, 1872) – Lebanon
• Aelurillus concolor Kulczynski, 1901 – Macedonia, Iran, Central Asia
• Aelurillus conveniens (O. P.-Cambridge, 1872) – Egypt, Israel, Syria
• Aelurillus cretensis Azarkina, 2002 – Crete
• Aelurillus cristatopalpus Simon, 1902 – South Africa
• Aelurillus cypriotus Azarkina, 2006 – Cyprus
• Aelurillus dorthesi (Audouin, 1826) – Egypt
• Aelurillus dubatolovi Azarkina, 2003 – Central Asia
• Aelurillus faragallai Prószynski, 1993 – Saudi Arabia, Yemen
• Aelurillus gershomi Prószynski, 2000 – Israel
• Aelurillus guecki Metzner, 1999 – Greece
• Aelurillus helvenacius Logunov, 1993 – Mongolia
• Aelurillus hirtipes Denis, 1960 – North Africa
• Aelurillus improvisus Azarkina, 2002 – India
• Aelurillus jerusalemicus Prószynski, 2000 – Israel
• Aelurillus kochi Roewer, 1951 – Greece, Israel, Syria
• Aelurillus kopetdaghi Wesołowska, 1996 – Turkmenistan
• Aelurillus kronestedti Azarkina, 2004 – Sri Lanka
• Aelurillus laniger Logunov & Marusik, 2000 – Macedonia, Kazakhstan
• Aelurillus latebricola Spassky, 1941 – Tajikistan
• Aelurillus leipoldae (Metzner, 1999) – Crete
• Aelurillus logunovi Azarkina, 2004 – Afghanistan, Pakistan
• Aelurillus lopadusae Cantarella, 1983 – Italy, Algeria
• Aelurillus lucasi Roewer, 1951 – Canary Islands, Salvages
• Aelurillus luctuosus (Lucas, 1846) – Mediterranean to Turkmenistan
• Aelurillus lutosus (Tyschchenko, 1965) – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan
• Aelurillus marusiki Azarkina, 2002 – Iran
• Aelurillus minimontanus Azarkina, 2002 – India
• Aelurillus mirabilis Wesołowska, 2006 – Namibia
• Aelurillus m-nigrum Kulczynski, 1891 – Palearctic
• Aelurillus monardi (Lucas, 1846) – Mediterranean
• Aelurillus muganicus Dunin, 1984 – Azerbaijan
• Aelurillus nabataeus Prószynski, 2003 – Israel
• Aelurillus nenilini Azarkina, 2002 – Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan
• Aelurillus numidicus (Lucas, 1846) – Algeria
• Aelurillus plumipes (Thorell, 1875) – Algeria, Tunisia
• Aelurillus politiventris (O. P.-Cambridge, 1872) – Greece to Israel
• Aelurillus quadrimaculatus Simon, 1889 – India, Sri Lanka
• Aelurillus reconditus Wesołowska & van Harten, 1994 – Yemen
• Aelurillus rugatus (Bösenberg & Lenz, 1895) – Tanzania
• Aelurillus sahariensis Berland & Millot, 1941 – Mali
• Aelurillus schembrii Cantarella, 1982 – Sicily, Malta
• Aelurillus simoni (Lebert, 1877) – Switzerland
• Aelurillus simplex (Herman, 1879) – Hungary
• Aelurillus spinicrus (Simon, 1871) – Morocco
• Aelurillus stanislawi (Prószynski, 1999) – Israel, Syria, Ethiopia
• Aelurillus steinmetzi Metzner, 1999 – Greece
• Aelurillus steliosi Dobroruka, 2002 – Crete
• Aelurillus subaffinis Caporiacco, 1947 – Ethiopia
• Aelurillus subfestivus Saito, 1934 – Japan
• Aelurillus tumidulus Wesołowska & Tomasiewicz, 2008 – Ethiopia
• Aelurillus unitibialis Azarkina, 2002 – Iran
• Aelurillus v-insignitus (Clerck, 1757) – Palearctic
  • Aelurillus v-insignitus morulus (Simon, 1937) – France
  • Aelurillus v-insignitus obsoletus Kulczynski, 1891 – Eastern Europe

• Murphy, Frances & Murphy, John (2000): An Introduction to the Spiders of South East Asia. Malaysian Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur.

• Li, D., Jackson, R.R. & Harland, D.P (1999). Prey-capture techniques and prey preferences of Aelurillus aeruginosus, A. cognatus and A. kochi, ant-eating jumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae) from Israel. Isr. J. Zool 45: 341-.
• Azarkina, G.N. (2004): Two new species of the genus Aelurillus Simon, 1884 from Pakistan and Sri Lanka (Araneae: Salticidae). Bulletin of the British Arachnological Society 13(2): 49-52
• Szűts, T. & Azarkina, G. (2002): Redescription of Aelurillus subaffinis Caporiacco, 1947 (Araneae: Salticidae). Annales Historico-Naturales Musei Nationalis Hungarici 94: 209-216. PDF

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aelurillus.

• Short description of Aelurillus (with drawings)
• Redescription of Aelurillus subaffinis Caporiacco, 1947 (PDF)
• Photographs of A. monardi
• Photograph of A. aeruginosus