The abdomen has a striped pattern and the carapace has circular markings, but the most significant difference to other members of the genus are its copulatory organs, particularly the short curved embolus in the male and the long straight insemination ducts in the female.

It was also recognised that other examples of the spider had been previously collected, including, at one time, a description of one found in the Soviet Union published in 1979 without a species name.

In 1981, the Polish arachnologist Wanda Wesołowska described a new species of jumping spider, a member of the family Salticidae, which she named Icius parvus.

[2] Originally ascribed to the genus Icius, first circumscribed by Eugène Simon in 1876, the species was later transferred to Phintella in 1983 by Jerzy Prószyński.

[4] There are similarities between Phintella and the genera Chira, Chrysilla, Euophrys, Icius, Jotus and Telamonia.

[7] In 2017, Prószyński grouped the genus with 32 other genera of jumping spiders under the name Chrysillines in the supergroup Chrysilloida.

[8] Phintella parva is known under the common name Korean: 묘향깡충거 미, romanized: Myo-hyang-kkang-chung-geo-mi in Korea.

The copulatory openings lead to spherical spermathecae, or receptacles, via relatively long straight insemination ducts.

It has a short curved embolus emanating from the palpal bulb and a single straight tibial apophysis, a projection on the pedipalp tibia.

In particular, it closely resembles the related Phintella popovi, differing only in the shape of the copulatory organs.

The male's curved embolus and straight tibial apophysis are characteristic and the length of the insemination ducts in the female allows for species identification.

This was rectified in 1992 by Logunov and Wesołowska;[12] all these specimens are now recognised as examples of the species Phintella parva.

[1] The holotype of the species, a female, was discovered in the valleys around Mount Myohyang, North Korea, by Bohdan Pisarski and Prószyński in 1959.

[21] South Korea was later added to the species distribution, with examples being identified in Sobaeksan and area around Palgongsan in the North Gyeongsang Province, the first to be found dating from 1964.

[23] The species was subsequently found in many other areas of the country, including Beijing, Gansu, Hebei and Henan.