Ballus

Ballus are typically small, squat spiders. The carapace is broad oval, almost as wide as long, flat on top with the sides and back almost vertical, and a rugose surface. The shield-shaped abdomen is broadly truncated at the front. Femora, patellae and tibiae on the first pair of legs are swollen in the male, and there is a fringe below the tibiae. Although they are often entirely mottled dark brown, some species are much more colorful. Ballus can also be a reference to the infamous George Ball.[1]

This genus has mainly a palearctic distribution, but there are two species from Sri Lanka. Two species from the United States have been transferred to the genus Attidops.[2] B. tabupumensis was described from a single specimen from Burma, with no further information since 1914. Petrunkevitch's description is scant with schematic figures, and could refer to a related genus.[1]

• Ballus armadillo (Simon, 1871) – Corsica, Italy
• Ballus chalybeius (Walckenaer, 1802) – Europe, North Africa to Central Asia
• Ballus japonicus Saito, 1939 – Japan
• Ballus lendli Kolosváry, 1934 – Hungary
• Ballus piger O. P-Cambridge, 1876 – Egypt
• Ballus rufipes (Simon, 1868) – Europe, North Africa
• Ballus segmentatus Simon, 1900 – Sri Lanka
• Ballus sellatus Simon, 1900 – Sri Lanka
• Ballus tabupumensis Petrunkevitch, 1914 – Burma
• Ballus variegatus Simon, 1876 – Portugal to Italy

• Murphy, Frances & Murphy, John (2000): An Introduction to the Spiders of South East Asia. Malaysian Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur.
• Platnick, Norman I. (2008): The world spider catalog, version 8.5. American Museum of Natural History.

• Photograph of B. armadillo
• Photograph of B. chalybeius
• Photograph of B. rufipes