Genus Thrandina Maddison

The type species of Thrandina, T. parocula Maddison, and the two described here are unusual among lapsiines, indeed salticids, in the large size of the PMEs. The palp has a robust median apophysis.

T. parocula was described from 1000 m elevation in southeastern Ecuador. A new record of T. parocula from further north (Fig. 1) is also at about 1000m. The two new species, similar in appearance to T. parocula, are from higher elevation, approximately 2000m. Of the two subadult males mentioned by Maddison (2006) as possibly belonging to T. parocula, the one from Yanayacu is almost certainly T. cosanga, and the one from Morona Santiago may also be T. cosanga, as it was found above 2000 m elevation. All three known Thrandina species are found on mossy tree trunks and branches in wet forests, especially where the moss is green and moist and yet exposed to some sun.

Living male specimens of the three species can be distinguished relatively easily: T. cosanga and T. bellavista have the cymbium almost entirely clothed in white hairs, while T. parocula has less extensive white, with the prolateral third of the cymbium black. The first two species also have much more distinct white patches at the base of the first leg metatarsus. T. bellavista is unusual in having two white spots on the posterior of the abdomen. These differences are easily seen in the photographs and the videos ( T. cosanga, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8Xx8rN5IKU; T. bellavista, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBuWSax2xbM; T. parocula, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rlt7_0q9Zs).