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New Name, Same Spider - _TNY_8416

Swedish common names (aka "vernacular names" for spiders are a bit more closely regulated than their English counterparts. Every species living in Sweden (~730 different species) has an official name which helps make them easier to manage, even if the scientific name always is better.

 

I am sometimes annoyed by a species having five or even more English names which really adds a lot of confusion - though I understand that the fact that English is spoken in so many countries makes it more difficult to synchronize the names.

 

This year, the people governing these things in Sweden have updated the names for a couple of spiders. This jumper is a female zebra spider (Salticus scenicus). When I snapped this shot back in early 2019, this was a "sebraspindel" (yes, with an "s"), but now it instead has become a "murzebraspindel", meaning "wall zebra spider". This as there are two other Salticus species which also are zebra striped, that now have gotten names which include a zebra reference.

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Uploaded on March 18, 2022
Taken on May 12, 2019