''Stenaelurillus sudanicus'' 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 lives in Sudan. 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 ...

. Only the female has been identified. 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 ...

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 ...

in length. The abdomen has markings similar to a spider of the genus '' Phlegra''. It is distinguished from other members of the genus ''Stenaelurillus'' by the way that the copulatory openings face backwards.

Taxonomy and etymology

''Stenaelurillus sudanicus'' 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 ...

. The

'' 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 ''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 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 ...

placed it in the subtribe Aelurillina, which he positioned 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 within 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. In 2017, it was grouped with nine other genera of jumping spiders under the name Aelurillines. The

name derives from the country where it was first found, Sudan.

Description

Only the female has been described. The spider is small, with a

that measures in length and in width and an

that is long and wide. It has 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 ...

with a pair of white streaks, one along the edge of the body and the other stretching from the front to back. The eye field is black, while the legs are brown. The abdomen has markings that are more typical for spiders from the '' Phlegra'' genus, with three white stripes on a black background. The spider has yellowish grey

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 and a round

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 ...

. 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. ...

has a deep pocket with copulatory openings placed to the side. It differs from the similar ''

Stenaelurillus siyamae ''Stenaelurillus siyamae'' is a species of jumping spider in the genus ''Stenaelurillus'' that lives in Sudan. It was first described in 2018 by Dmitri Logunov and Galina Azarkina from a holotype specimen found by a collector named Siyam in the ...

'', also found in the same area, by the way that the copulatory openings face backwards.

Distribution and habitat

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 varia ...

is restricted to Sudan. 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 found near

Kerma Kerma was the capital city of the Kerma culture, which was founded in present-day Sudan before 3500 BC. Kerma is one of the largest archaeological sites in ancient Nubia. It has produced decades of extensive excavations and research, including t ...

in 1989. It was discovered in a house, which implies a level of comfort the spider has living in areas of human habitation.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q27505147 Endemic fauna of Sudan Fauna of Sudan Spiders described in 2014 Spiders of Africa Salticidae Taxa named by Wanda Wesołowska