''Stenaelurillus zambiensis'' is a species of jumping spider in the genus ''

Stenaelurillus ''Stenaelurillus'' is a genus of Salticidae, jumping spiders that was first described by Eugène Simon, Eugène Louis Simon in 1886. Most species live in Africa, with some species found in Asia, including China. All species have two white longitud ...

'' that lives in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It was first described in 2014 by Wanda Wesołowska. The spider is small, the male being smaller than the female, with a brown

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 ...

between in length and black-brown abdomen between in length. The male has a distinctive metallic sheen on its abdomen and eye field. The male carapace is marked with two white streaks while the female has white stripes. It is distinguished from other members of the genus by the male's hook-shaped end to the embolus and the two depressions in the female epigyne.

Taxonomy

''Stenaelurillus zambiensis'' was first described by Wanda Wesołowska in 2014. It is one of over 500 species identified by the Polish arachnologist. The genus ''

'' was first raised 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 1886. The name relates to the genus name ''

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 ...

'', which itself derives from the Greek word for cat, with the addition of a Greek stem meaning narrow. In 2015, Wayne Maddison placed it in the subtribe Aelurillina, which he positioned in the tribe Aelurillini within 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, it was grouped with nine other genera of jumping spiders under the name Aelurillines. The species name derives from the place where it was first found, Zambia.

Description

The spider is typical of its genus. The male is small, with a

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 ...

that measures between in length and in width. It has a brown pear-shaped

covered in dense brown hairs with a pair of white streaks. The abdomen is oval, black-brown, long and wide. The eye field is black, while the legs are brown. The abdomen and eye field both have a distinctive metallic feel. The spider has yellowish grey pedipalps and a round palpal bulb. The shape of the abdomen differs from other species of ''Stenaelurillus'', which are typically oblong, but it is most distinctive feature is the hook-shaped end to its and straight embolus. The female is larger than the male, with a cephalothorax long and wide and an abdomen long and wide. The carapace has a pair of white stripes and both the abdomen and eye field lack a metallic look. The epigyne has two large rounded depressions, which distinguishes it from other spiders.

Distribution

The

distribution Distribution may refer to: Mathematics *Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations * Probability distribution, the probability of a particular value or value range of a vari ...

covers Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The holotype for the species was found near Mfuwe, Zambia in 1995. The spider has also identified from samples taken from the Mana Pools National Park, Zimbabwe, and the Nature Reserve at

Lilongwe Lilongwe (, , ) is the capital and most populated city of the African country of Malawi. It has a population of 989,318 as of the 2018 Census, up from a population of 674,448 in 2008. In 2020 that figure was 1,122,000. The city is located in th ...

, Malawi.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q27505148 Arthropods of Malawi Arthropods of Zimbabwe Invertebrates of Zambia Salticidae Spiders described in 2014 Spiders of Africa Taxa named by Wanda Wesołowska