Philaeus chrysops

Appearance

Normal body length is 7 to 12 mm, but 5 mm small males do occur. Unusual for spiders, the males are often bigger. The sexes differ extremely: males are very colorful with a glaringly red opisthosoma . The males have a dark brown cephalothorax with two broad longitudinal white stripes behind the rear eyes. The abdomen is bright orange-red on the back and the sides, with a longitudinal black stripe in the center and black shoulders. The long, slender legs are dark with the patellae and most of the tibiae of the first two pairs bright orange-red. The cephalothorax of the female is similar to the male, but with much smaller white stripes. The back of her abdomen is largely covered with a very broad brown band with two narrow longitudinal white stripes and a few white marks near the sides. The remainder of the abdomen and the sides are orange, the legs light brown with dark brown rings.

The spider prefers open and warm areas.

Distribution

''P. chrysops'' occurs in the Palearctic, reaching into South China