Uroballus

Uroballus is a spider genus of the jumping spider family, Salticidae. It includes seven accepted species.^[1][2]

Uroballus
male Uroballus carlei from Hong Kong
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Infraorder:	Araneomorphae
Family:	Salticidae
Subfamily:	Salticinae
Genus:	Uroballus Simon, 1902
Type species
Uroballus octovittatus Simon, 1902
Species
See text.

Uroballus is similar to the related genus Stertinius.^[3] Other related genera are Ligurra, Phyaces and Simaetha.^[4]

Description

Uroballus are about 3 mm long in both sexes. The cephalothorax is very broad, almost square. The abdomen is oval, the first pair of legs thick and short with swollen femora. The other legs are weak.

The spinnerets are very long and thin.^[5] Among spiders, only Hersiliidae possess longer spinnerets. The function of such long spinnerets remains unknown.^[4] Adult spiders of some species may mimic lichen moths caterpillars.^[2]

Name

The genus name is a combination of Ancient Greek οὐρᾱ́ (ourā́) "tail" and the salticid genus Ballus, referring to the long spinnerets.

Species

As of November 2020^[update], the World Spider Catalog accepted seven species:^[1]

• Uroballus carlei Logunov & Obenauer, 2019 — Hong Kong
• Uroballus henicurus Simon, 1902 — Sri Lanka
• Uroballus kinabalu Logunov, 2018 — Borneo
• Uroballus koponeni Logunov, 2014 — Borneo
• Uroballus nazirwanii (Prajapati, Malamel & Sebastian, 2020) — India
• Uroballus octovittatus Simon, 1902 — Sri Lanka
• Uroballus peckhami Zabka, 1985 — Vietnam