Missulena insignis, commonly known as the lesser red-headed mouse spider, is a species of spider belonging to the family Actinopodidae native to Australia. The species name is derived from the Latin insignis "mark".[2]
The species was first described by Octavius Pickard-Cambridge in 1877, as Eriodon insigne. Separately, William Joseph Rainbow described a male collected from Menindie, New South Wales as Actinopus formosus in 1896,[3] formosus being Latin for "handsome/beautiful". H. Womersley in 1943 regarded Actinopus formosus as a synonym of Missulena occatoria.[4] Barbara York Main in 1985 treated Actinopus formosus as a synonym of Missulena insignis,[5] the position adopted by the World Spider Catalog.[1] She considered that Womersley had partly confused M. occatoria and M. insignis, with M. occatoria only occurring in eastern Australia.[5] According to Framenau et al., M. occatoria and M. insignis cannot be differentiated based on the original description.[6]
Missulena insignis, commonly known as the lesser red-headed mouse spider, is a species of spider belonging to the family Actinopodidae native to Australia. The species name is derived from the Latin insignis "mark".
