The Salticidae (Spiders) of Panama/Introduction
F. Cambridge ('01) listed two hundred and sixty-six species of Salticidae from all of Central America including many not in the collections studied by him and known only from records made by other students of the family. Petrunkevitch ('25) listed one hundred and six species including several conjectured to be present in Panama but not definitely recorded from the country. Among these were described eight species as new to science. Banks ('29) reported sixty-one species, mostly from the Canal zone. Twelve species were regarded as new to science. Chamberlin and Ivie ('36) described eighteen new species from my collection of 1928. Most of these have proved to be synonyms of known species and are referred to in the appropriate parts of this paper. From my collections of 1934, 1936, and 1939 I have separated out one hundred and seventy-two species. Among these eighty-one species are considered new and are described as such. Twenty-nine holotypes are accompanied by their allotypes. Twelve allotypes of previously known species have been identified and described in detail, and numerous hypotypes have also been described. Fourteen new genera have been established for those species which seemed to have no place among the known genera. Altogether, more than two hundred species of Salticids are now known from Panama.
The problem of the subdivision of the family Salticidae into subfamilies and smaller groups remains one of the major questions facing all arachnologists interested in the family. F. Cambridge ('01) divided all Central American Salticidae into two subfamilies, the Toxeinae and the Salticinae. He included in the former all which he considered pedunculate and in the latter all those not pedunculate. While most students of the family would disagree with Cambridge in respect to such a division into subfamilies, I believe he showed, on the whole, a good understanding of natural relationships in his groupings within the Salticinae. Simon ('01) in his great Histoire Naturelle des Araignees worked out a very complete but highly artificial system of classification for the family. He divided all Salticidae into three divisions, the Unidentati, Fissidentati, and the Pluridentati. Those with no teeth on the retromargin of the fang groove he placed with the Unidentati. In his Systema Aranearum, Petrunkevitch ('28) discussed the inadequacies of Simon's system but found no satisfactory alternative. This resulted in his making the same fundamental subdivision into three major divisions after which he arranged Simon's "Groupes" into twenty-three subfamilies. Throughout his subsequent writings this author (1929–1930, 1939, 1942) has followed the same system with minor changes although he has frequently expressed his dissatisfaction with it.
Banks ('29) recognized among his Panamanian spiders only the subfamilies Attinae and Lyssomaninae. The former he separated into the following groups: Marpissini, Rudrini, Dendryphantini, Habrocestini, Ballini, Amycini, Phyalini, and Synemosynini. Bryant ('40) followed Petrunkevitch's Systema Aranearum "since it includes all spider genera known up to that time and is the one at present used in the Zoological Record".
After struggling with this problem for several years I have decided to recognize for the present only two subfamilies, the Lyssomaninae and the Salticinae. The latter I have broken up into several groups based upon what I regard as features which express a natural relationship. In the light of knowledge which has accumulated during the past fifty years I think considerable success may attend the effort to arrange all of the Salticidae from Panama into their natural groups, although I realize quite well that few will be satisfied with my treatment of these. It is, however, my earnest hope that the work presented in this paper will help later students of the family to resolve the troubles which they are certain to encounter. For convenience, all genera and species are arranged alphabetically within their respective groups.
Through their generous support of my work, the directors of the Horace H. and Mary A. Rackham Fund have made it possible for me to spend the summers of 1934, 1936, and 1939 in Panama collecting and studying in the field. Mr. Nathan Banks, Dr. Joseph C. Bequaert and Miss Elizabeth B. Bryant, all of the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy at Harvard College, have on numerous occasions since 1934 extended every courtesy of their laboratories to me. The use of the collections of spiders in the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy and especially of the Peckham types of salticids have been of inestimable value. A grant-in-aid for the summer of 1945 made by Dr. Thomas Barbour, Director of the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy, made it possible for me to complete this study. It is with a deep sense of gratitude that I make acknowledgements for these specific aids and for others too numerous to mention. Without the help of these supporters and friends my work of the past ten years would have been impossible.
I am also pleased to be able to state that all types established in this paper are deposited in the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy.