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Stenaelurillus hirsutus
	The related Stenaelurillus termitophagus
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Infraorder:	Araneomorphae
Family:	Salticidae
Subfamily:	Salticinae
Genus:	Stenaelurillus
Species:	S. hirsutus
Binomial name
	Stenaelurillus hirsutus; Lessert, 1927

Stenaelurillus hirsutus is a species of jumping spider in the genus Stenaelurillus that lives in Central Africa, Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uganda. It was first described in 1927 by Robert de Lessert. The spider is small, with a cephalothorax that ranges in length between 2.3 and 2.7 mm (0.091 and 0.106 in) in length and an abdomen between 2.4 to 2.5 millimetres (0.094 to 0.098 in) long. The male is distinguished by its black and white striped pattern on the anterior of the carapace and a mane of light-coloured hairs around the eye field that are reminiscent of a Mohawk hairstyle. The female's epigyne has a deep narrow pocket and bean-shaped copulatory openings. The clypeus has a distinctive pattern of three vertical white stripes on its otherwise black exterior.

Taxonomy

Stenaelurillus hirsutus was first described in 1927 by the Swiss arachnologist, Robert de Lessert.^[1] It was placed in the genus Stenaelurillus that was first raised by Eugène Simon in 1886.^[2] 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.^[3] The species name is the Latin word for hairy. It was placed in the subtribe Aelurillina in the tribe Aelurillini in the clade Saltafresia by Wayne Maddison in 2015.^[4] In 2017, the genus was grouped with nine other genera of jumping spiders under the name Aelurillines.^[5]

Synonyms

Stenaelurillus cristatus, first identified by Wanda Wesołowska and Anthony Russell-Smith in 2000, is considered a synonym for Stenaelurillus hirsutus.^[1] The species name cristatus derives from the Latin word for crested.^[6]

Description

The spider is small. The cephalothorax measures between 2.3 and 2.7 mm (0.091 and 0.106 in) in length and between 1.5 and 1.9 mm (0.059 and 0.075 in) in width, while the abdomen is between 2.4 and 2.5 mm (0.094 and 0.098 in) long and 1.8 and 2.3 mm (0.071 and 0.091 in) wide.^[7] The male has a red-brown or dark brown carapace covered in scales, with bands of white scales crossing the back and thorax.^[8]^[9] It is described as both oval and pear-shaped.^[6]^[7] The chelicerae are brown and hairy.^[9] The eye field is black and has long dense fawn-coloured hairs that form a mane that produces an effect reminiscent of the Mohawk hairstyle popular in punk fashion. Similar hair form a brush around the carapace.^[7] The abdomen is dark brown with two narrow lines of white hairs at the front and three dots to the rear.^[9] The spinnerets are dark brown and the legs are brown-yellow.^[10] The pedipalps are yellow, and the palpal bulb is short.^[11] The embolus is short and straight.^[10]

The female is slightly larger than the male, typically 0.2 mm (0.0079 in) longer.^[12] The carapace is brown and has white scales covering two yellow stripes that stretch from front to back. The abdomen is dark brown with three pots and an indistinct leaf pattern marked in white on its back. The spinnerets are brown and legs yellow. The epigyne has a deep narrow pocket and widely separated bean-shaped copulatory openings.^[13]

The spider is almost indistinguishable from other members of the genus, which can make recognition challenging. The male is almost identical to Stenaelurillus bandama and initially the holotype of that species was thought to be Stenaelurillus hirsutus. It is distinguishable by its narrower embolus.^[14] The shape of the embolus is also an important difference between this species and Stenaelurillus jocquei.^[15] The female is almost identical to Stenaelurillus pilosus, but can be identified by the elongated shape of the spermathecae.^[16] The spider is also very similar to Stenaelurillus glaber and Stenaelurillus striolatus. However, it can be distinguished from these species by the pattern on the clypeus, which is black with three vertical white stripes.^[17]

Distribution and habitat

The species was first identified near Faradje, Democratic Republic of the Congo.^[18] It was then found across East Africa, including around Lake Baringo in the Kenyan Rift Valley, the Mkomazi National Park in Tanzania and Murchison Falls National Park In Uganda.^[19]^[20] It has also been found near Bambari, Central African Republic, in the West Gonja Municipal District of Ghana, Kossou in Ivory Coast and Bignona in Senegal.^[21] The species distribution encompasses Central Africa, Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uganda.^[1] The species seems to favour hot, dry areas, finding shelter amongst shrubs.^[19]

References

Citations

^ ^a ^b ^c World Spider Catalog (2017). "Stenaelurillus hirsutus Lessert, 1927". World Spider Catalog. 18.0. Bern: Natural History Museum. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
^ Logunov 2020, p. 202.
^ Fernández-Rubio 2013, p. 125.
^ Maddison 2015, p. 279.
^ Prószyński 2017, p. 95.
^ ^a ^b Wesołowska & Russell-Smith 2000, p. 97.
^ ^a ^b ^c Wesołowska 2014, p. 604.
^ Lessert 1927, p. 433.
^ ^a ^b ^c Logunov & Azarkina 2018, p. 60.
^ ^a ^b Logunov & Azarkina 2018, p. 61.
^ Wesołowska & Russell-Smith 2000, p. 98.
^ Logunov & Azarkina 2018, pp. 59, 62.
^ Logunov & Azarkina 2018, p. 62.
^ Logunov & Azarkina 2018, p. 22.
^ Logunov & Azarkina 2018, p. 65.
^ Logunov & Azarkina 2018, p. 92.
^ Logunov & Azarkina 2018, p. 41.
^ Lessert 1927, p. 435.
^ ^a ^b Logunov & Azarkina 2018, p. 57.
^ Russell-Smith 2020, p. 22.
^ Wesołowska 2014, pp. 602, 604.

Bibliography

Fernández-Rubio, Fidel (2013). "La etimología de los nombres de las arañas (Araneae)" [The etymology of the names of spiders (Araneae)]. Revista ibérica de Aracnología (in Spanish) (22): 125–130. ISSN 1576-9518.
Lessert, Robert (1927). "Araignees du Congo (Premiere partie)". Revue suisse de Zoologie. 34: 433–435. doi:10.5962/bhl.part.117612.
Logunov, Dmitri V. (2020). "Further notes on the genus Stenaelurillus Simon, 1885 from India (Araneae: Salticidae)". Zootaxa. 4899 (1): 201–214. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4899.1.11. PMID 33756833. S2CID 232339218.
Logunov, Dmitri V.; Azarkina, Galina N. (2018). "Redefinition and partial revision of the genus Stenaelurillus Simon, 1886 (Arachnida, Araneae, Salticidae)". European Journal of Taxonomy. 430: 1–126. doi:10.5852/ejt.2018.430.
Maddison, Wayne P. (2015). "A phylogenetic classification of jumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae)". The Journal of Arachnology. 43 (3): 231–292. doi:10.1636/arac-43-03-231-292. S2CID 85680279.
Prószyński, Jerzy (2017). "Pragmatic classification of the World's Salticidae (Araneae)". Ecologica Montenegrina. 12: 1–133. doi:10.37828/em.2017.12.1.
Russell-Smith, Anthony (2020). "A Checklist of the Spiders of Tanzania". Journal of East African Natural History. 109 (1): 1–41. doi:10.2982/028.109.0101.
Wesołowska, Wanda (2014). "Further notes on the genus Stenaelurillus Simon, 1885 (Araneae, Salticidae) in Africa with descriptions of eight new species" (PDF). Zoosystema. 36 (3): 595–622. doi:10.5252/z2014n3a3. S2CID 86684221. Archived from the original on 27 April 2018.
Wesołowska, Wanda; Russell-Smith, Anthony (2000). "Jumping spiders from Mkomazi Game Reserve in Tanzania (Araneae Salticidae)". Tropical Zoology. 13 (1): 11–127. doi:10.1080/03946975.2000.10531126.