Rarahu

Taxobox
name = "Rarahu"


image_caption =
image_width = 250px
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Arachnida
ordo = Araneae
familia = Salticidae
subfamilia = Agoriinae
tribus = "incertae sedis"
genus = "Rarahu"
genus_authority = Berland, 1929
diversity_link = List of Salticidae species#Rarahu
diversity = 1 species
range_

range_map_width = 250px
species = "R. nitida"
binomial = "Rarahu nitida"
binomial_authority = Berland, 1929

"Rarahu" is a genus of spiders in the Salticidae family (jumping spiders). Its only described species, "Rarahu nitida", is endemic to Samoa.

Name

Berland probably adapted the genus name "Rarahu" from Pierre Loti's book of the same name, which was published in 1880. Loti himself either used the rare Tahitian word "rarahu", meaning (amongst other things) "to eat "tapu" things", or changed the name of the volcano "Raraku". [Mabbott 1946]

The species name is from Latin "nitida" "shining", "handsome", or "neat" (a false cognate).

Footnotes

References

* (1946): The Origin of Pierre Loti's Name "Rarahu". "Modern Language Notes" 61(4): 288.
* (2007): [http://research.amnh.org/entomology/spiders/catalog/index.html The world spider catalog] , version 8.0. "American Museum of Natural History".

External links

* [http://salticidae.org/salticid/diagnost/rarahu/nitida.htm Diagnostic drawings]