''Stenaelurillus specularis'' 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'' that the

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 Malawi. It was first described in 2014 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 ...

. The spider is small, with a brown

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 ...

between in length and a black

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. The

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 ...

has two white streaks and the female abdomen has a triangular-shaped white marking. It is distinguished from other members of the genus by the male's shiny black area on the abdomen, after which the species is named. and the female's short, wide

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. ...

that has two large oval copulatory openings.

Taxonomy

''Stenaelurillus specularis'' was first described by

in 2014. 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 ...

. It was placed in the

'' Stenaelurillus'', 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. In 2015,

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 ...

allocated it 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, which is placed in 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. Two years later, in 2017, it was grouped with nine other genera of jumping spiders under the name Aelurillines. The

name is a

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 that can be translated brilliant and recalls the shining area on the male's

Description

The spider is small. The male has a

that measures between in length and between in width. The brown

is hairy and slightly pear-shaped. It has two white streaks that cross the main part of the body and wide white bands around the margins. The abdomen is oval, black and hairy, between long and wide, and has a shiny spot that is marked by two patches of non-shiny black. This shiny patch is the most distinguishing feature of the spider. The eye field is black and is surrounded by long brown bristles. 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 black, and the legs are yellow. The

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 are light and hairy and similar to ''

Stenaelurillus darwini ''Stenaelurillus darwini'' is a jumping spider species found in Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Keny ...

'' but differs in the shape of

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 ...

, having a shorter lobe shape at the rear. The

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 ...

is short. The spider can be distinguished from the similar '' Stenaelurillus tettu'' by the narrow and bent projection from the palpal bulb. The female is similar to the male in size and shape. It has an cephalothorax long and wide and an abdomen long and wide. The carapace is also pear-shaped and coloured similarly, but the abdomen has a large triangular area of white similar to other species in the genus. The spinnerets are light and legs yellow-orange. The

is short, wide and has two large oval copulatory openings. Due to the lack of the abdomen's shiny patch, it is the design of the epigyne that most distinguishes the female of the species from other members of the genus.

Distribution

The species was first identified in the

Viphya Mountains The Viphya Mountains, also known as the Viphya Plateau or Viphya Highlands, are a mountain range in located in Chikangawa in Malawi's Northern Region. The word viphya means "New (things)" in the Tumbuka language. Geography The range runs north- ...

of Malawi based on examples found in 1978. It is

to the country.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q27505146 Arthropods of Malawi Salticidae Spiders described in 2014 Spiders of Africa Taxa named by Wanda Wesołowska