jumping spiders

A spectacularly-coloured jumping spider with iridescent, metallic-looking, turqoise-green coloured bands across the carapace, a white stripe along the front edge and sides of the abdomen, a central white stripe running lengthways down the abdomen and white and turquoise bands on the legs - otherwise mostly jet black.Female body length to 7mm, male to 6mm. The carapace is high, widest behind the posterior lateral eyes sloping quite steeply to the margins. The abdomen is long, more or less cigar-shaped, a little flattish on top and tapering towards the spinnerets. It feeds on ants and other arthropods (Mascord 1970). Named Amycus micans by Koch in 1880, changed to Cosmophasis by Simon. The name cosmo means world and phasis means phase, aspect, appearance, or way. It may refer to the way the cephalothorax, if spherical, might resemble a world, with bands of oceans and continents. The word micans is from the Latin micare to vibrate and sparkle, hence sparkling, shiny, iridiscent.