''Pancorius wesolowskae'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

jumping spider Jumping spiders are a group of spiders that constitute the family (biology), family Salticidae. As of 2019, this family contained over 600 described genera and over 6,000 described species, making it the largest family of spiders at 13% of all sp ...

in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

'' Pancorius'' that lives in China. The species was first described in 2020 by Wei-Hang Wang and Cheng Wang. The spider is large, measuring between in overall length. The

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 ...

is dark brown and the

opisthosoma The opisthosoma is the posterior part of the body in some arthropods, behind the prosoma (cephalothorax). It is a distinctive feature of the subphylum Chelicerata (arachnids, horseshoe crabs and others). Although it is similar in most respects to a ...

dark grey with a pattern of light and dark. The female is larger than the male but otherwise very similar in colouration. The female spider is similar to '' Pancorius wangdicus'' but differs in have slit-shaped copulatory openings compared to the other species. The male has a blunter and shorter

retrolateral tibial apophysis This glossary describes the terms used in formal descriptions of spiders; where applicable these terms are used in describing other arachnids. Links within the glossary are shown . Terms A Abdomen or opisthosoma: One of the two main body parts ...

than the related '' Pancorius cadus''.

Taxonomy

''Pancorius wesolowskae'' is a

that was first described by Wei-Hang Wang and Cheng Wang in 2020. The

is named after the Polish

arachnologist Arachnology is the scientific study of arachnids, which comprise spiders and related invertebrates such as scorpions, pseudoscorpions, and harvestmen. Those who study spiders and other arachnids are arachnologists. More narrowly, the study of sp ...

Wanda Wesołowska Wanda Wesołowska (born 11 August 1950) is a Polish zoologist known for her work with jumping spiders. She has described more species of jumping spider than any contemporary writer, and is second only to Eugène Simon in the history of arachnolog ...

. It was allocated to the

'' Pancorius'', which had been first described 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 1894. The genus is one of 32 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 ...

Plexippina in the

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English language, English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in p ...

Plexippini. The subtribe is similar to

Wayne Maddison Wayne Paul Maddison , is a professor and Canada Research Chair at the departments of zoology and botany at the University of British Columbia, and the Director of the Spencer Entomological Collection at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum. His research ...

's idea of Plexippinae. The spiders are predominantly found in

Afro-Eurasia Afro-Eurasia (also Afroeurasia, Eurafrasia or the Old World) is a landmass comprising the continents of Africa, Asia, and Europe. The terms are compound words of the names of its constituent parts. Its mainland is the largest and most populou ...

, and hard to differentiate. For example, the genera ''

Evarcha ''Evarcha'' is a genus of spiders in the family Salticidae (jumping spiders) with 85 species (and one recognized subspecies) distributed across the world. Habitat These spiders are often found on shrubs and short plants in damp areas, resting i ...

'', ''

Hyllus In Greek mythology, Hyllus (; Ancient Greek: Ὕλλος) or Hyllas (Ὕλᾱς) was son of Heracles and Deianira, husband of Iole, nursed by Abia. Mythology Heracles, whom Zeus had originally intended to be ruler of Argos, Lacedaemon and Mes ...

'' and ''Pancorius'' are very similar in many morphological respects except size. Maddison listed the tribe in 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, ...

Simonida. In 2016, it had been grouped with eight other genera of jumping spiders under the name Evarchines, named after the related genus ''Evarcha'', by

Jerzy Prószyński Jerzy Prószyński (born 1935 in Warsaw) is a Polish arachnologist specializing in systematics of jumping spiders (family Salticidae). He is a graduate of the University of Warsaw, a long-term employee of the Siedlce University of Natural Scienc ...

Description

''Pancorius wesolowskae'' is a large and stocky spider. The male has a total length of . The

cephalothorax The cephalothorax, also called prosoma in some groups, is a tagma of various arthropods, comprising the head and the thorax fused together, as distinct from the abdomen behind. (The terms ''prosoma'' and ''opisthosoma'' are equivalent to ''cepha ...

] has a typical length of and width of . The broad

is dark brown, with a red patch in the centre and with sparse white

seta In biology, setae (singular seta ; from the Latin word for "bristle") are any of a number of different bristle- or hair-like structures on living organisms. Animal setae Protostomes Annelid setae are stiff bristles present on the body. Th ...

e. The dark grey

is long and wide and has a scattering of bristles. The top has a design formed of a light coloured central patch, a wave-like pattern and parallel lines. The bottom has a pattern of light and dark browns. The clypeus is brown with white setae. The

chelicerae The chelicerae () are the mouthparts of the subphylum Chelicerata, an arthropod group that includes arachnids, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders. Commonly referred to as "jaws", chelicerae may be shaped as either articulated fangs, or similarly ...

are dark brown with two fore and one back teeth. The

spinneret A spinneret is a silk-spinning organ of a spider or the larva of an insect. Some adult insects also have spinnerets, such as those borne on the forelegs of Embioptera. Spinnerets are usually on the underside of a spider's opisthosoma, and are ...

s are dark brown to 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 brown-yellow to dark brown and spiney. The

pedipalp Pedipalps (commonly shortened to palps or palpi) are the second pair of appendages of chelicerates – a group of arthropods including spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders. The pedipalps are lateral to the chelicerae ("jaws") and ...

s are yellow-brown. The

palpal bulb The two palpal bulbs – also known as palpal organs and genital bulbs – are the copulatory organs of a male spider. They are borne on the last segment of the pedipalps (the front "limbs" of a spider), giving the spider an appearance often descr ...

has a short, blunt, almost triangular

and a thick

embolus An embolus (; plural emboli; from the Greek ἔμβολος "wedge", "plug") is an unattached mass that travels through the bloodstream and is capable of creating blockages. When an embolus occludes a blood vessel, it is called an embolism or emb ...

that starts large, expands larger and then tapers to a blunt tip. The female is larger, measuring in length. The carapace is also typically larger, measuring in length and in width, as is the opisthosoma, which has a length of and a width of . The patterning on both is similar, as are the colouring of the chelicerae, clypeus, legs and spinnerets. 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. ...

has a two pockets located closely together towards the rear. Slit-shaped opening lead to the strongly sclerotized copulatory ducts. The fertilization ducts lead from the middle of round receptacles. The species is similar to the related '' Pancorius cadus'' and '' Pancorius wangdicus'' The male can be differentiated from ''Pancorius wangdicus'' by the shorter retrolateral tibial apophysis while the female ''Pancorius wangdicus'' has C-shaped rather than slit copulatory openings.

Distribution and habitat

''Pancorius wesolowskae'' is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to China. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

was found in Fanjingshan National Nature Reserve in 2013. The spider seems to thrive amongst shrubs.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q106667487 Endemic fauna of China Salticidae Spiders described in 2020 Spiders of China