What is "havaika"

Havaika is a genus of the spider family Salticidae (jumping spiders). The genera Habronattus and Pellenes are closely related. All then known species were split from the genus Sandalodes (subfamily Plexippinae) (, 2002).

All twelve species occur on the islands of the Hawaiian and Marquesas chains. Recent molecular studies suggest that the species from the two chains are the result of independent colonizations (, 2006). The Marquesas species H. triangulifera and H. flavipes are not included in Havaika by , 2008.

Collecting travels in the late 1990 have suggested that the salticid fauna of Hawaii has been drastically exterminated, so it may be that several or most of the described species are in fact already extinct.1