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Eris militaris (Hentz, 1845)

bronze jumper


Males

  • Eris militaris (Hentz, 1845) Male
  • Eris militaris (Hentz, 1845) Male
  • Eris militaris (Hentz, 1845) Male
  • Eris militaris (Hentz, 1845) Male

Females

  • Eris militaris (Hentz, 1845) Female
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How to Identify Eris militaris (Hentz, 1845)

Family: SALTICIDAE Blackwall, 1841

Genus: Eris C. L. Koch, 1846

Species: Eris militaris (Hentz, 1845)

Origin of Name: Eris is the Greek goddess of discord or strife (known as Discordia in Roman mythology). The specific epithet militaris means "of a soldier, military, or martial" in Latin.

Official Common Name: bronze jumper


Can Be Confused With

Eris militaris (Hentz, 1845) can be confused with Eris flava (Peckham & Peckham, 1888). However, E. flava, though widely distributed in eastern North America, is more common in the southest and tends to prefer marshes and fields.

Males of these two species are easy to distinguish because E. flava males (right, below) have a white band between the large, forward-facing eyes and the jaws whereas E. militaris males (left, below) do not.

MalesMale Eris militarisMale Eris flava
Eris militaris (Hentz, 1845) male
(image courtesy W. Maddison)		Eris flava (Peckham & Peckham, 1888) male
(image courtesy W. Maddison)

Females of E. militaris have a continuous white band from their small, side-facing eyes down to the edge of their carapace, but females of E. flava have a darkly colored patch between their side-facing eyes down to a thin white band that rings the lower edge of their carapace.

Range

USA, Canada, Alaska.

Collection Map of Museum Specimens
in The Nearctic Spider Database

Museum Specimens in The Nearctic Spider Database

Extra Reading

Edwards, G. B. 2004. Revision of the jumping spiders of the genus Phidippus (Araneae: Salticidae). Occasional Papers of the Florida State Collection of Arthropoda 11: 72-76.

Maddison, W. 1986. Distinguishing the jumping spiders Eris militaris and Eris flava in North America (Araneae: Salticidae). Psyche 93: 141-150. PDF refprint

Other Web Pages

Salticidae: Diagnostic Drawings Library (http://salticidae.org/salticid/diagnost/eris/milita-m.htm)

The Nearctic Spider Database (http://www.canadianarachnology.org/data/spiders/33233)


Recent Submissions

Eris militaris (Nikki J. Breidenbaugh [May 5, 2008])Observation Date: May 5, 2008 Coordinates: 38.4369, -87.1164 Observer: Nikki J. Breidenbaugh
Observation: I am not positive of my identifications.  He was on my money plant, jumping from flower to flower, very active.
Eris militaris (David Bree [August 27, 2007])Observation Date: August 27, 2007 Coordinates: 43.9948, -77.7283 Observer: David Bree
Observation: On milkweed leaf. I am not 100% sure of the identification of this species but there is a fuzzy picture if anyone would like to comment.