This jumping spider is a common inhabitant of western oak woodlands. In 1888 the Peckhams gave the original description of the species under the name Attus imperialis and in 1908 included the drawing (below) under Dendryphantes mannii.
In his Pelegrina Revision Maddison’s discussion of the manni group (includes six North American Metaphidippus – north of Mexico) notes that these spiders are closely related to the Pelegrina salticids and that several species from the two genera look quite similar. As can be seen from the Peckham’s illustration M. manni has large areas of white scaling on the dark chelicerae; these are absent in Pelegrina spiders. The white cheliceral markings are prominent on both M. manni and M. chera – the two most widely distributed and most frequently encountered of our Metaphidippus spiders.
Peckham& Peckham, 1888, 1908; Maddison, 1996