Telamonia dimidiata

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Two-striped Telamonia
Telamonia dimidiata female.jpg
Female Two-striped Jumper
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Subkingdom: Eumetazoa
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Suborder: Araneomorphae
Infraorder: Araneomorphae
Section: Dionycha
Superfamily: Salticoidea
Family: Salticidae
Subfamily: Plexippinae
Tribe: Plexippini
Genus: Telamonia
Species: T. dimidiata
Binomial name
Telamonia dimidiata
(Simon, 1899)

Viciria dimidiata
Phidippus pateli

The two-striped jumper, or Telamonia dimidiata, is a jumping spider found in various Asian tropical rain forests, in foliage in wooded environments.


Telamonia dimidiata at Durgapur, India

Females can reach a body length of 9–11 mm (0.35–0.43 in), males can reach a length of 8–9 mm (0.31–0.35 in). The female is light yellowish, with a very white cephalus and red rings surrounding the narrow black rings round the eyes. Two longitudinal bright red stripes are present on the opisthosoma.[1] The male is very dark, with white markings, and red hairs around the eyes. They appear in Singapore, Indonesia, Pakistan, Iran, India, and Bhutan. Telamonia Dimidiata are non-venomous and produce no toxin significant to humans.

Email hoax[edit]

Since 1999, the spider has been the subject of an email hoax claiming that it was a fatal spider found lurking under toilet seats in North Florida.[2] This hoax was a rehashing of an older email circulated in 1999 with similar claims, except under the name "South American Blush Spider (arachnius gluteus [sic])" - literally "butt spider". Similar email hoaxes (with details of the original changed) occurred in other parts of the world, alleging the same falsity in the recipients' countries. Lately[when?] it has also appeared on Facebook, also including a picture of the arachnid. Posts commonly report of it being found world-round, suggesting everyone must take precautions.[3] No such events appear to have occurred, and the story is considered an urban legend.[4][5][6] The false rumor has since spread to websites such as the Abbywinters Discussion Forums, Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr in 2012.


  1. ^ Murphy & Murphy 2000:300
  2. ^ "Hoax Slayer website". October 2010. Retrieved 28 September 2010. 
  3. ^ "New poisonous spider in the United States". Retrieved 2012-10-21. 
  4. ^ "UCR Spiders Site: Internet Hoax". 2009-08-03. Retrieved 2011-11-22. 
  5. ^ "Spider Myths: Pulsating cactus". 2010-09-01. Retrieved 2011-11-22. 
  6. ^ Snopes: Urban Legends Reference Pages: Two-Striped Telamonia Spider. Retrieved 2007-FEB-25.


  • Murphy, Frances & Murphy, John (2000): An Introduction to the Spiders of South East Asia. Malaysian Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur.
  • Platnick, Norman I. (2007): The world spider catalog, version 8.0. American Museum of Natural History.

External links[edit]