Tutelina harti (Emerton, 1891) - Jumping Spider

The illustrations at right are Emerton's drawings of females of the three Tutelina species that have been recorded in Massachusetts. Commenting on the present species T. harti (Icius Hartii) the Peckhams state, The figures drawn by Mr. Emerton are excellent . . . adding that several details omitted from the illustrations are found in more perfect specimens. In fact Emerton's typical illustrations, relying as they do solely on a dorsal presentation, gives us a general sense of overall shape but in some cases fails to capture important details. The shapes (in dorsal view) are indeed similar but the cephalothorax and abdomen of T. harti when seen from the side is characteristically flattened (see video). Shapes of jumpers in real life may also differ in critical ways from a generalized illustration. The female shown in the video, for instance, is gravid and this gives her abdomen a distended look.
Emerton, 1891

• ♦ *J. H. Emerton Coll./MCZ - Icius hartii - Middlesex (Medford, Middlesex Fells), July 1888 - MCZ #21523
• ♦ T. Murray - Tutelina harti - Worcester (Harvard), April 2005 - BugGuide node 15384
• ♦ P. Cristofono - T. h. - Essex (Salem), July 2009 - BugGuide node 303555
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• ♦ Connecticut - I. h. - Kaston, 1948: 490, 22 records
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• *MCZ #21523 cited above is the holotype and is referred to by Emerton on page 235 in his 1891 New England Spiders of the Family Attidae

Peckham, G. W. & Peckham, E. G. 1909. Revision of the Attidae of North America. Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters 16(1): 355-655.