Aelurillus Brutus
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''Aelurillus brutus'' is a species of jumping spider in the genus ''
Aelurillus ''Aelurillus'' is a genus of spiders in the family Salticidae (jumping spiders). Description Species of the genus ''Aelurillus'' are typically about 7 mm long in females, and up to five mm in males. They are stout, squat-shaped and rather f ...
'' that lives in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. The female was first described by Wanda Wesołowska in 1996 and the male by Galina Azarkina in 2003. The spider is small with a
carapace A carapace is a Dorsum (biology), dorsal (upper) section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods, such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates, such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tor ...
that is between long and an abdomen between in length. The female is larger than the male. The spider is generally dark brown and hairy, but the male abdomen has a pattern of grey-yellow wavy lines. The difference between this species and others in the genus are subtle. The females are particularly difficult to distinguish. However, there are three distinctive stripes on the eye field and a pattern on the bottom of the abdomen.


Taxonomy

''Aelurillus brutus'' is a jumping spider species first described by Wanda Wesołowska in 1996. It was one of over 500 species identified by the Polish arachnologist during her career. She placed it in the genus ''
Aelurillus ''Aelurillus'' is a genus of spiders in the family Salticidae (jumping spiders). Description Species of the genus ''Aelurillus'' are typically about 7 mm long in females, and up to five mm in males. They are stout, squat-shaped and rather f ...
'' that was first
circumscribed In geometry, the circumscribed circle or circumcircle of a polygon is a circle that passes through all the vertices of the polygon. The center of this circle is called the circumcenter and its radius is called the circumradius. Not every polyg ...
by
Eugène Simon Eugène Louis Simon (; 30 April 1848 – 17 November 1924) was a French naturalist who worked particularly on insects and spiders, but also on birds and plants. He is by far the most prolific spider taxonomist in history, describing over 4, ...
in 1885. The genus name derives from the Greek word for cat. It was placed in the
subtribe Subtribe is a taxonomic category ranking which is below the rank of tribe and above genus. The standard suffix for a subtribe is -ina (in animals) or -inae (in plants Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plant ...
Aelurillina in the tribe Aelurillini, both named after the genus, by Wayne Maddison in 2015. These were allocated to the
clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...
Saltafresia. In 2017, the genus was grouped with nine other genera of jumping spiders under the name Aelurillines. Initially, only the female was described. In 2003, Galina Azarkina first described the male, and also demonstrated the relationship between the species and other ''Aelurillus'' spiders. She also found that an example of '' Aelurillus v-insignitus'' from 1985 had been misidentified and was in fact an example of this species.


Description

The spider is medium-sized. The female has a dark brown, nearly black
carapace A carapace is a Dorsum (biology), dorsal (upper) section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods, such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates, such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tor ...
that is in length and in width. It has a covering of short white hairs and long brown bristles around the eyes, that sit within a short eye field. The carapace is high and looks stretched in length, with more width towards the back. The clypeus, or face of the spider, is dark brown. The chelicerae, part of the mouthparts, are brown. The abdomen is grey-yellow and also looks stretched, measuring in length and in width. The back is pointy and the whole abdomen has a scattering of grey-yellow hairs interspersed with brown bristles. The spinnerets are grey-yellow. The
legs A leg is a weight-bearing and locomotive anatomical structure, usually having a columnar shape. During locomotion, legs function as "extensible struts". The combination of movements at all joints can be modeled as a single, linear element ...
are hairy and orange-yellow with patches of brown visible. The pedipalps are yellow. The
epigyne The epigyne or epigynum is the external genital structure of female spiders. As the epigyne varies greatly in form in different species, even in closely related ones, it often provides the most distinctive characteristic for recognizing species. ...
is oval with a large pocket and two central copulatory openings. The spider has three distinctive stripes on its eye field and, unlike many in the genus, lacks hairs on its legs and the sides of the carapace. The male is slightly smaller than the female. The dark brown carapace is long and wide and covered in white scales. The clypeus is also dark brown like the female. The abdomen is long and wide, grey-yellow with a pattern of indistinct wavy lines. The chelicerae, legs and spinnerets are brown-yellow but the pedipalps are brown rather than yellow. The palpal bulb is large with a small embolus. The species is closely related to '' Aelurillus helvanacius'' but the female has distinctive flaps on the epigyne. The morphological differences between the species, ''
Aelurillus ater ''Aelurillus'' is a genus of spiders in the family Salticidae (jumping spiders). Description Species of the genus ''Aelurillus'' are typically about 7 mm long in females, and up to five mm in males. They are stout, squat-shaped and rathe ...
'' and '' Aelurillus dubatolovi'' are subtle. Unlike ''Aelurillus ater'', the spider has white hairs on the clypeus and, unlike both the other species, short hairs on the side of the carapace and a pattern on the bottom of the abdomen. Not unusually for this genus, the females of all three species are hard to tell apart.


Distribution

The spider was first found in
Gaplaňgyr Nature Reserve Gaplaňgyr or Kaplankyr is a mountain plateau and nature reserve (''zapovednik'') of northern Turkmenistan. It was established in 1979. It is a place for the protection and restoration of indigenous flora and fauna, it is located on the Gaplaňgy ...
on the south Ustyurt Plateau in Turkmenistan. The holotype, a female, was collected in 1985. The spider has also been seen in the
Repetek Biosphere State Reserve Repetek Biosphere State Reserve, often referred to as Repetek Nature or Desert Reserve, ( tk, Repetek goraghanasy, ''Репетек горагханасы'') is a desert nature reserve (''zapovednik'') of Turkmenistan, located in Lebap Province, E ...
. In 2003, Azarkina extended the
species distribution Species distribution —or species dispersion — is the manner in which a biological taxon is spatially arranged. The geographic limits of a particular taxon's distribution is its range, often represented as shaded areas on a map. Patterns of ...
to include Kazakhstan based on paratypes found on the then-island
Barsa-Kelmes Barsa-Kelmes (russian: Барсакельмес, kk, Барсакелмес, ''Barsakelmes'' meaning "the place of no return") is a former island, the largest in the Aral Sea. Its area was 133 km2 in the 1980s, but as the sea became more ...
, in the
Ustyurt Nature Reserve Ustyurt Nature Reserve ( kz, Үстірт мемлекеттік табиғи қорығы, ''Üstırt memlekettık tabiği qoryğy''; russian: Устюрт национальный заповедник, ''Ustyurt natsional'nyy zapovednik''), or ...
and on the Mangyshlak Peninsula. It is reckoned to live across both western Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.


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Bibliography

* * * * * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q2478557 Salticidae Spiders of Central Asia Spiders described in 1996 Taxa named by Wanda Wesołowska