Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 January 2026 | 18(1): 28259–28262

 

ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) 

https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.10290.18.1.28259-28262

#10290 | Received 02 December 2025 | Final received 12 January 2026 | Finally accepted 13 January 2026

 

 

First record of Colyttus bilineatus Thorell, 1891 (Arachnida: Araneae: Salticidae) from India

 

Monica Chetry 1 , John T.D. Caleb 2   & Parthankar Choudhury 3        

 

 1,3 Wildlife Conservation Research Laboratory, Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Assam University, Silchar, Assam 788011, India.

2 Department of Anatomy, Saveetha Medical College & Hospital, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Saveetha University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 602105, India.

1 monicachetry17@gmail.com, 2 caleb87woodgate@gmail.com, 3 parthankar@rediffmail.com (corresponding author)

 

 

Editor: Shiju T. Raj, St. Joseph’s College, Kozhikode, India.           Date of publication: 26 January 2026 (online & print)

 

Citation: Chetry, M., J.T.D. Caleb & P. Choudhury (2026). First record of Colyttus bilineatus Thorell, 1891 (Arachnida: Araneae: Salticidae) from India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 18(1): 28259–28262. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.10290.18.1.28259-28262   

  

Copyright: © Chetry et al. 2026. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.

 

Funding: None.

 

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

 

Acknowledgements: We are thankful to the Forest Department of Cachar District and the Institutional Animal Ethics Committee, Assam University, Silchar, for the permission for field work along with the sample collection. We thank Sri Manoj Bharadwaj for the assistance in the field. We sincerely thank prof. Jayashree Rout for allowing the use of the stereomicroscope of the Phycology and Lichenology Lab.

 

 

The Jumping Spider genus Colyttus Thorell, 1891 currently comprises nine species distributed across the Oriental region (World Spider Catalog 2026). Within India, the genus is represented by two species: Colyttus nongwar Sudhin & Sen, 2025 and Colyttus proszynskii Caleb et al. 2018 (Caleb & Sankaran 2026).

During recent fieldwork conducted in Assam, India, an ecologically significant part of the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot, an additional member of the genus was collected. Subsequent morphological examination identified the specimen as Colyttus bilineatus Thorell, 1891, a species previously recorded exclusively from Indonesia (World Spider Catalog 2026).

The present paper documents the first record of C. bilineatus from India, thereby extending its known geographic distribution and contributing to the understanding of regional Salticidae diversity.

The specimen was collected by vegetation beating and was preserved in 70% ethanol. Photographs of the specimen in life were captured by a Realme 7 Pro mobile phone attached with a Nikon 16–50 mm prime lens. Morphological examination and imaging were performed by the Leica EZ4 stereomicroscope. All measurements are in millimetres (mm). The studied specimen has been deposited in the reference collection of Wildlife Conservation Research Laboratory, Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Assam University, Silchar, India.

 

Genus Colyttus Thorell, 1891

Type species: Colyttus bilineatus Thorell, 1891

 

Colyttus bilineatus Thorell, 1891

Images 1–5

Colyttus bilineatus Thorell, 1891: 132 (original description of female); Simon 1903: 737, figs 848–850 (male, synonym of Hyllus modestus); Prószyński 1984: 19 (illustration of male); Prószyński 1987: 17 (illustration of male); Zhang & Maddison 2015: 31, figures 524–530, 884–885 (illustration of male and female); Prószyński, 2017: 74, figs 38Q, 39R (illustration of male and female).

Hyllus modestus Simon, 1899: 113 (description of male)

Material examined: 1 male (AUS-WCR-925M), India, Assam, Loharbond (24.585° N, 92.737° E) 47 m, 22.ix.2025, coll. M. Chetry. 

Diagnosis: The males of C. bilineatus can be distinguished by the stout, finger-like lamella of embolus and the narrow proximal tegular lobe (Images 3–5 and Figures 526–527 in Zhang & Maddison 2015). Females can be recognized by the pair of brown longitudinal thin stripes on the abdomen; vulva with pear-shaped primary and secondary spermathecae (Figures 525 & 530 in Zhang & Maddison 2015).

Description: Total length: 6.73, carapace length 3.11, width 2.81; abdomen length 3.62, width 1.85. Carapace oval, reddish-brown; dorsal part with a pentagonal golden-yellow patch starting from the posterior ocular region to the posterior mid thoracic region; eye field black. Anterior eyes surrounded by white orbital setae (Image 1). Clypeus covered long white setae (Image 2). Chelicerae are dark brown. Endites and labium are yellow-brown. Sternum oval, yellow. Legs brown with yellow coxae, trochanters, and proximal portion of femora (Images 1, 2). Abdomen elongated oval, brown with a broad mid-longitudinal yellow stripe (Image 1); venter yellow. Spinnerets yellow. Pedipalp segments are yellow-brown. Retrolateral tibial apophysis is directed retro laterally in ventral view, elongated with a narrow tip. Proximal tegular lobe along the retrolateral side, nearly oval. Embolus thin and crescent-like; lamella of embolus broad and directed at the 11 o’clock position (Images 3–5).

Distribution: India (present data), Malaysia (Thorell 1891), Singapore (Simon 1903), Indonesia (Simon 1899) (World Spider Catalog 2026) (Figure 1).

Habitat: The specimen was collected from an Inner Line Reserved Forest in Cachar District, Barak Valley, Assam, India, which forms the southern part of the state. The area comprises mixed evergreen and deciduous vegetation, with a closed canopy approximately 20–30 m above ground level (Islam et al. 2013). The forest also supports diverse bamboo and cane species. The region experiences a tropical wet climate, characterized by hot, humid summers and comparatively cool winters.

 

Discussion 

The salticid tribe Euophryini is currently represented in India by 16 species belonging to 11 genera: Bathippus (1 species), Chalcoscirtus (2), Chalcotropis (1), Colyttus (3, including the new national record reported herein), Cytaea (1), Euophrys (1), Foliabitus (1), Laufeia (1), Saitis (1), Tanzania (1), and Thiania (3) (Caleb & Sankaran 2026).

The discovery of C. bilineatus in Assam significantly extends the species’ known range beyond Indonesia, suggesting either a wider natural distribution than previously documented or under sampling across its potential habitats. The Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot, in particular, remains poorly surveyed for Salticidae, and several genera traditionally associated with southeastern Asia have been reported from this region (Caleb et al. 2018; Basumatary et al. 2020).

Recent studies emphasize that biodiversity-rich regions such as the Western Ghats and Indo-Burma continue to yield new taxonomic records and undescribed species when systematically explored (Asima et al. 2023; Sudhin & Sen 2025). The present finding reinforces this trend and highlights the need for more comprehensive surveys in northeastern India, particularly within forested and topographically complex landscapes like those of the Barak Valley.

Overall, the present record contributes to the growing understanding of Indian euophryine diversity and underscores the importance of targeted field studies in bridging existing biogeographic knowledge gaps.

 

 

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References

 

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