Nyssus albopunctatus

White-spotted swift spider at O'Connor, ACT

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Identification history

Nyssus albopunctatus	5 Jan 2017	KimPullen
Nyssus albopunctatus	4 Jan 2017	ibaird
Nyssus sp. (genus)	4 Jan 2017	ibaird

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User's notes

Swift spider observed on the leaf of a potted cumquat (Citrus japonica). The species, based on published online illustrations, is probably the White-spotted Swift Spider Nyssus albopunctata (Corinnidae family). Formerly Densey Clyne (1969) 'A guide to Australian Spiders' described this as Supunna sp. although there clearly have been taxonomic revisions since. See also the Atlas of Living Australia and the Australian Faunal Directory which document these taxonomic revisions.

4 comments

ibaird wrote:

5 Jan 2017

See a photo, attributed as N. albopunctata at:
http://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:biodiversity.org.au:afd.taxon:6c38c848-58a3-401d-8bde-54de704f8da0

KimPullen wrote:

5 Jan 2017

Entered as 'albopunctatus', as according to the rules of nomenclature the species name must agree in gender with the genus name, in this case masculine.

ibaird wrote:

6 Jan 2017

OK. Thanks. Have to confess I never took Latin at school. I did notice both options were being used.

KimPullen wrote:

10 Jan 2017

As you noted, this used to be in the genus Supunna, which is feminine, hence albopunctata. Sometimes people forget to alter the species name when there is a new 'combination'.

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