Havaika

Havaika
Havaika sp. male in Hawaii
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Infraorder: Araneomorphae
Family: Salticidae
Subfamily: Salticinae
Genus: Havaika
Prószyński, 2002
Type species
Havaika jamiesoni
Prószyński, 2002
Species

See text.

Havaika is a genus of the spider family Salticidae (jumping spiders). The genera Habronattus and Pellenes are closely related. All then known species were split from the genus Sandalodes.

All twelve species occur on the islands of the Hawaiian and Marquesas chains. Recent molecular studies suggest that the species from the two chains are the result of independent colonizations (Arnedo & Gillespie, 2006). The Marquesas species H. triangulifera and H. flavipes are not included in Havaika by Prószyński, 2008.

Collecting travels in the late 1990 have suggested that the salticid fauna of Hawaii has been drastically exterminated, so it may be that several or most of the described species are in fact already extinct.[1]