''Lictor conjugans'' is the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

for the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

Lictor A lictor (possibly from Latin language, Latin ''ligare'', meaning 'to bind') was a Ancient Rome, Roman civil servant who was an attendant and bodyguard to a Roman magistrate, magistrate who held ''imperium''. Roman records describe lictors as hav ...

''. Originally named ''Bacelarella conjugans'', it is a

jumping spider Jumping spiders are a group of spiders that constitute the family (biology), family Salticidae. , this family contained over 600 species description, described genus, genera and over 6,000 described species, making it the largest family of spide ...

that lives in the

rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

s of Ivory Coast. The spider is medium-sized with a brown

carapace A carapace is a 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 tortoises, the unde ...

that is between long and an

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

between long. There is a yellow spot just behind the spider's eye field and a lighter mottled pattern on the abdomen. It has white hairs on its

clypeus The clypeus is one of the sclerites that make up the face of an arthropod. In insects, the clypeus delimits the lower margin of the face, with the labrum articulated along the ventral margin of the clypeus. The mandibles bracket the labrum, but ...

and its

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 ar ...

s are pale yellow with a dark streak on them. It has

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 cap ...

that are brown and yellow. Its

copulatory organ A sex organ, also known as a reproductive organ, is a part of an organism that is involved in sexual reproduction. Sex organs constitute the primary sex characteristics of an organism. Sex organs are responsible for producing and transporting ...

s help differentiate the species from others in the genus. The male has a very short

embolus An embolus (; : emboli; from the Greek ἔμβολος "wedge", "plug") is an unattached mass that travels through the circulatory system, bloodstream and is capable of creating blockages. When an embolus Vascular occlusion, occludes a blood vess ...

while the female has a large plate and central pit in its

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. ...

. Internally, its insemination ducts are curved 120 degrees.

Taxonomy and etymology

''Lictor conjugans'' is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

, a member of the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Salticidae Jumping spiders are a group of spiders that constitute the family (biology), family Salticidae. , this family contained over 600 species description, described genus, genera and over 6,000 described species, making it the largest family of spide ...

, that was first described by the

arachnologists Arachnology is the science, scientific study of arachnids, which comprise spiders and related invertebrates such as scorpions, Pseudoscorpionida, pseudoscorpions, Opiliones, harvestmen, Tick, ticks, and mites. Those who study spiders and other a ...

Tamás Szűts and Rudy Jocqué in 2001. They allocated it to the

'' Bacelarella'', which itself had been first

circumscribed In geometry, a circumscribed circle for a set of points is a circle passing through each of them. Such a circle is said to ''circumscribe'' the points or a polygon formed from them; such a polygon is said to be ''inscribed'' in the circle. * Circum ...

by Lucien Beland and Jacques Millot in 1941, and gave it the name ''Bacelarella conjugans''. In 2008, the genus had been allocated to a

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

named the ''Bacelarella'' group based on

DNA sequencing DNA sequencing is the process of determining the nucleic acid sequence – the order of nucleotides in DNA. It includes any method or technology that is used to determine the order of the four bases: adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine. The ...

. This is a subtribe of the

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...

Aelurillini in the subclade Simonida in the

Saltafresia in the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

Salticinae Salticinae is a subfamily of jumping spiders (family Salticidae). It includes over 90% of the known species of jumping spiders. The subfamily is divided into two unranked clades: Amycoida and Salticoida. Description Members of the subfamily Sal ...

. The genus is named in honour of the Portuguese arachnologist Amélia Vaz Duarte Bacelar. The

is named for the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

word for 'linking' and relates to the way that the species is intermediate between other related species.

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 arachnolo ...

and Konrad Wiśniewski circumscribed a new genus in 2023 that they termed ''

'' after the Roman civil servants that carried a bundle of rods on their shoulders. The rods recall the bristles on the male spider's palpal tibia. They declared ''Bacelarella tentativa'' to be the

for the genus with the name ''Lictor conjugans''. The new genus is a member of the subtribe Thiratoscirtina n the tribe Aelurillini. ''Bacelarella conjugans'' was one of five species moved to the genus at the time based on some similarities in the structure of their copulatory organs. The genera are likely to have diverged between 16.3 and 18.7 million years ago.

Description

''Lictor conjugans'' is a medium-sized spider with distinctive features. It measures between in length. The spider's body is divided into two main parts: a rounded

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 ...

and a thinner more oval

. Males of this species have a light brown

, the hard upper part of the cephalothorax, that is between in length and between in width. It has a yellow spot behind its darker brown eye field, which is marked with a pattern that includes a white triangular shape and a white band. There are white lines along the sides. The underside of the cephalothorax, or

sternum The sternum (: sternums or sterna) or breastbone is a long flat bone located in the central part of the chest. It connects to the ribs via cartilage and forms the front of the rib cage, thus helping to protect the heart, lungs, and major bl ...

, is brown, as are its mouthparts, its

chelicerae The chelicerae () are the arthropod mouthparts, 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 ...

, labium and

maxillae In vertebrates, the maxilla (: maxillae ) is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The two maxillar ...

. The spider's face, known as the

, is brown and is covered in white hairs. The presence of these white hairs helps distinguish the spider from the related '' Lictor pavidus''. It has a single tooth. The male spider's abdomen is between long and between . The topside is dark with a mottled pattern that is interrupted by a pattern of two white spots, two white bands running down from front to back and a reddish

scutum The ''scutum'' (; :''scuta'') was a type of shield used among Italic peoples in antiquity, most notably by the army of ancient Rome starting about the fourth century BC. The Romans adopted it when they switched from the military formation of ...

. The underside is contrastingly lighter. The spider's

s are pale yellow with a dark streak on them. Its

are brown with yellow segments. Its

s are unusual. its

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 ...

is generally covered in white hairs and it has a hairy cymbium. Its

tegulum 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 desc ...

is longer than it is wide and has a short

emanating from the top. There is an appendage, known as a lateral apophysis, that is near the bottom of the tegulum. The palpal tibia has a projection, known as its tibial apophysis, that is short with a knob near the base. The female of the species is larger than the male. It has a carapace that is between long and between wide. Its carapace is mainly brown with a yellow spot just behind the darker eye field. Its sternum is yellowish-brown and its clypeus ia pale brown. Its chelicerae are dark brown while the remainder of its mouthparts, its labium and maxillae, are lighter. The female spider has an abdomen that is between in length and between in width. It is generally blackish, darker on top than underneath, with a pale mottled pattern visible on its upper surfaces. The spider has pale yellow spinnerets that have a dark streak and

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

s that are pale yellow. Its legs are mainly brown with yellow and pale yellow segments. The spider's

, or external copulatory organ, has a large plate, is rounded to the rear and has a central pit. It has short copulatory openings leading via insemination ducts that are curved 120 degrees to large

spermatheca The spermatheca (pronounced : spermathecae ), also called ''receptaculum seminis'' (: ''receptacula seminis''), is an organ of the female reproductive tract in insects, e.g. ants, bees, some molluscs, Oligochaeta worms and certain other in ...

e, or receptacles, that have thick walls.

Distribution and habitat

''Lictor'' spiders generally live in Africa and are particularly common in the forests of Central and West Africa. ''Lictor conjugans'' is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...

to Ivory Coast. The male

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

was found in the

s of the Beki Bosse Matie Classified Forest in the southeast of the country in 1995. Other examples of the species were also found nearby. Like other members of the genus, it is more active at times of greater sunlight, typically during the dry season from December to March. It is amongst the least commonly found of all the members of the genus.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * * {{Taxonbar, from1=Q134540862, from2=Q4148441 Endemic fauna of Ivory Coast Salticidae Spiders described in 2001 Spiders of Africa