Portia Labiata - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

P. labiata is one of 17 species in the genus Portia as of May 2011. This species has been named Sinis fimbriatus (Hasselt, 1882; misidentification), Linus labiatus (Thorell, 1887), Linus dentipalpis (Thorell, 1890), Erasinus dentipalpis (Thorell, 1892), Erasinus labiatus (Simon, 1903) and Portia labiata (Wanless, 1978), and the last name has been used since then.

Portia is in the subfamily Spartaeinae, which is thought to be primitive. Molecular phylogeny, a technique that compares the DNA of organisms to reconstruct the tree of life, indicates that Portia is a member of the clade Spartaeinae, that Spartaeinae is basal (quite similar to the ancestors of all jumping spiders), that Portia′s closest relative is the genus Spartaeus, and that the next closest are Phaeacius and Holcolaetis.