''Rhene amanzi'' 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 ...

Rhene ''Rhene'' is a spider genus of the family Salticidae (jumping spiders). Taxonomy The genus was originally named ''Rhanis'' by C. L. Koch in 1846. However, this name had already been used for a beetle genus in 1834. Accordingly, Tamerlan Thorel ...

''. The male was first identified in 2013 and the female in 2018. It is small and dark brown, almost black, although the female is larger than the male. The species is named after the Amanzi Private Game Reserve in Free State,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, which is the only place that it has been found. It differs from other spiders in the genus by the large triangular

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 ...

found on the male and the shallow notch in the female's

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. ...

Taxonomy

''Rhene amanzi'' was first identified by

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 ...

and Charles Haddad in 2013. It was allocated to the

'', which is named after the Greek female name, shared by mythological figures. The genus is part of the subtribe Dendryphantina 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 ...

Dendryphantini, and is related to the genera ''

Dendryphantes ''Dendryphantes'' is a genus of jumping spiders that was first described by Carl Ludwig Koch in 1837. Species it contains sixty-nine species, found in Africa, Asia, South America, the Caribbean, Europe, North America, and on Saint Helena: *'' D ...

'' and '' Macaroeris''. The species is named after the Amanzi Private Game Reserve, where the first example was collected.

Description

The spider was first identified in 2013, with initially only the male described by

and Charles Haddad. The female was first described in 2018 by the same team. The spider is small, flat, robust and a very dark brown, almost black, in colour. The male is distinguished by its large triangular

. The male's

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 trapezoid in shape and has a length of and width of . The

abdomen The abdomen (colloquially called the belly, tummy, midriff, tucky or stomach) is the part of the body between the thorax (chest) and pelvis, in humans and in other vertebrates. The abdomen is the front part of the abdominal segment of the torso. ...

is very flat and long and wide. It has dark

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 and dark brown legs. It is similar to '' Dendryphantes neethlingi'', differing in the way that the

curves. The female is similar to the related '' Rhene timidus'', but is smaller, despite being larger than the male. 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 length of and width of , while the abdomen is long and wide. The carapace is dark, but has some very short white hairs on the edges. The abdomen also has some short dark hairs. It has a round

with a small notch at the end. The copulatory openings are at the front. The epigyne differs from ''Rhene timidus'' in details, including having a shallower notch.

Distribution

''Rhene amanzi'' has only been identified in the Amanzi Private Game Reserve near

Brandfort Brandfort, officially renamed Winnie Mandela in 2021, is a small agricultural town in the central Free State province of South Africa, about 60 km northeast of Bloemfontein on the R30 road. The town serves the surrounding farms for supplies ...

in Free State, South Africa. Unusually for the genus, it has been found in grasslands as well as in wooded areas.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q27505015 Endemic fauna of South Africa Salticidae Spiders of South Africa Spiders described in 2013 Taxa named by Wanda Wesołowska