Rarahu

{{Short description|Genus of spiders}} {{Speciesbox | taxon=Rarahu nitida | authority=Berland, 1929<ref name=NMBE /> }}

'''''Rarahu''''' is a genus of jumping spiders endemic to Samoa. {{As of|2017}}, it contains only one species, '''''Rarahu nitida'''''.<ref name=NMBE>{{cite web|title=Salticidae| website=World Spider Catalog| publisher=Natural History Museum Bern| accessdate=2017-04-20| url=https://www.wsc.nmbe.ch/genus/2925}}</ref> Berland probably adapted the genus name ''Rarahu'' from Pierre Loti's book of the same name, which was published in 1880. Loti himself either used the rare Tahitian word "rarahu", meaning (amongst other things) "to eat ''tapu'' things", or changed the name of the volcano "Raraku".<ref>Mabbott 1946</ref> The species name is from Latin ''nitida'' "shining", "handsome", or "neat" (a false cognate).

==Footnotes== {{Reflist}}

==References== * {{aut|Mabbott, T.O.}} (1946): The Origin of Pierre Loti's Name "Rarahu". ''Modern Language Notes'' '''61'''(4): 288.

==External links== * [https://salticidae.org/salticid/diagnost/rarahu/nitida.htm Diagnostic drawings]

Category:Salticidae Category:Endemic fauna of Samoa Category:Monotypic Salticidae genera Category:Spiders of Oceania