''Stenaelurillus pilosus'' 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), ...

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 ...

in 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 ...

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

'' that 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 Nigeria. It was first described in 2011 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 arachnolo ...

and Anthony Russell-Smith. 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 ...

between in length 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 in length. It can be distinguished from other species in the genus by the dark brown band on its clypeus, the distinctive long orangish-brown hairs on its black eye field, the male's straight

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 ...

and the presence of two fissure-like openings in 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. ...

on the female.

Taxonomy

''Stenaelurillus pilosus'' was first described by

and Anthony Russell-Smith in 2011. It is one of over 500 species identified by the Polish

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

Wesołowska. 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 Taxonomy (biology), taxonomist in history, ...

in 1886. The name relates to the genus name '' Aelurillus'', which itself derives from the Greek word for cat, with the addition of a Greek stem meaning narrow.It has been placed in the subtribe Aelurillina in 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 by

Wayne Maddison Wayne Paul Maddison (born 1958) is a Canadian evolutionary biologist, arachnologist, and biological illustrator. He is Canada Research Chair in Biodiversity and a professor at the departments of zoology and botany at the University of British ...

in 2015, which is itself part of the

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 ...

Saltafresia. It was subsequently grouped with nine other genera of jumping spiders under the name Aelurillines two years later. The species name relates to the long bristles on the outside of the

on the male of the species.

Description

The spider is medium sized. The male has 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

which is edged with dark iridescent bristles. It has two stripes of white scales that run down the thorax. The

is oval, black-brown, long and wide. The shape of the abdomen differs from other species of ''Stenaelurillus'', which are typically oblong. The eye field is black, with distinctive long orangish brown hairs. The

spinnerets 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 ...

are brown and the legs are yellow. 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 ...

is similar to ''

Stenaelurillus hirsutus ''Stenaelurillus hirsutus'' is a species of jumping spider in the genus '' Stenaelurillus'' that lives in Central Africa, Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uganda. The species name is the Latin word for hairy and the genus name is rela ...

'', ''

Stenaelurillus glaber ''Stenaelurillus glaber'' is a species of jumping spider in the genus ''Stenaelurillus'' that lives in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Uganda. It was first described in 2011 by Wanda Wesołowska and Anthony Russell-Smith. Only the male has been ...

'' and '' Stenaelurillus striolatus''. However, the

is distinct as it is straight. The spider can also be distinguished from these species by the fact that the clypeus has a dark brown band. The female is similar in size to the male, with a cephalothorax long and wide and an abdomen long and wide.The carapace is similar to the male, but the abdomen is brown with an indistinct pattern of three spots and two lines. The

has two fissure-like openings. It has a narrow shallow pocket and copulatory openings that are widely separated slits. These features of the epigyne distinguish it from other spiders. Otherwise, the spider is very similar to '' Stenaelurillus iubatus'', with one of the original examples of ''Stenaelurillus pilosus'' later being recognised as a

paratype In zoology and botany, a paratype is a specimen of an organism that helps define what the scientific name of a species and other taxon actually represents, but it is not the holotype (and in botany is also neither an isotype (biology), isotype ...

of the other species.

Distribution and habitat

The species is

to Nigeria. The

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 ...

for the species was collected near

Ibadan Ibadan (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and most populous city of Oyo State, in Nigeria. It is the List of Nigerian cities by population, third-largest city by population in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano (city), Kano, with a total populatio ...

in 1973 along with other examples that were living nearby. The spider has been found in both

fallow Fallow is a farming technique in which arable land is left without sowing for one or more vegetative cycles. The goal of fallowing is to allow the land to recover and store Organic compound, organic matter while retaining moisture and disrupting ...

bush and on roadside verges.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q2126633 Endemic fauna of Nigeria Fauna of Nigeria Salticidae Spiders described in 2011 Spiders of Africa Taxa named by Wanda Wesołowska