Hentzia palmarum (Hentz, 1832) - Jumping Spider

(continued from H. mitrata account)
Hentz's terse and technical spider accounts tell us little of the man. However, a series of letters between Hentz (from Northampton, MA and later Chapel Hill, NC) and Thaddeus M. Harris (Milton, MA), reveal a personable and jocular Hentz. While their content is entomology the letters are clearly communications between close friends. NMH: Oh! why must we live at such distance from each other? What pleasures we might enjoy together. Other remarks record their delicate cajoling and good-natured jesting NMH: Mourn no longer for the solitude and singleness of your Amphicoma vulpina (a scarab beetle) I have found another . . . The men also share their triumphs and their defeats. NMH: I have . . .several new and exciting insects. I have had a little axe made for me , and I go, like a woodcutter, splitting all the old trees I can find. At one point Hentz's field work is abruptly curtailed. NMH: I am very unwilling to go into the woods now. They are infested with myriads of ticks which produce intolerable itching . . . I could encounter scorpions with more fortitude. We have, moreover, mad dogs and mokeson (sic) snakes in abundance to make our solitary forests more agreeable and secure. While it may be tempting to paint Hentz as "the weird spiderman," this charicature ignores the man and the naturalist we can relate to, admire, and smile with rather than at.
Scudder, 1869

• ♦ J. H. Emerton - Icius palmarum - Massachusetts - Summer - Emerton, 232, pl. 18, f. 1
• ♦ *BSNH - Wala palmarum - Essex (Ipswich), Norfolk (Dedham) - Bryant, 1908: 95
• ♦ AMNH - Hentzia palmarum - Barnstable, Hampshire - Richman, 1989: 301
• ♦ USNMNH - H. p. - Plymouth - Richman, 1989: 301
• ♦ EPC - H. p. - Suffolk - Richman, 1989: 301
• ♦ MCZ - H. p. - Worcester - Richman, 1989: 301
• ♦ C. Comeau, MCZ - H. p. - Nantucket (NBI Plot) - October 2006 - Catalog #76343
• ♦ P. Cristoforo - H. p. - Middlesex (Arlington) - May 2008 - BugGuide node 186338
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• ♦ Connecticut - H. p. - Kaston, 1948: 492, 21 records
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• *See Bryant, 1908
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Richman, D . B . 1989. A revision of Hentzia (Araneae, Salticidae) . J . Arachnol., 17 :285-344 .