Langona hirsuta

Langona hirsuta is a jumping spider that was first described by Wanda Wesołowska and Charles Haddad in 2011.{{cite web|author=World Spider Catalog|year=2020|title=Langona hirsuta Haddad & Wesolowska, 2011|website=World Spider Catalog|publisher=Natural History Museum|place=Bern|url=https://wsc.nmbe.ch/species/30320|version=21.0|access-date=6 June 2020}} It isone of over 500 species identified by the Polish arachnologist Wesołowska during her career.{{sfn|Wiśniewski|2020|page=6}} The species was placed in the genus Langona, first described by Eugène Simon in 1901.{{sfn|Wesołowska|2006|page=237}} It was listed in the subtribe Aelurillina in the tribe Aelurillini by Wayne Maddison in 2015. These were allocated to the clade Saltafresia.{{sfn|Maddison|2015|page=279}} In 2017, the genus was grouped with nine other genera of jumping spiders under the name Aelurillines. It is particularly closely related to the genus Aelurillus, after which the group is named.{{sfn|Prószyński|2017|page=95}} Haddad and Wesołowska saw the position of the species in Aelurillina as uncertain as it has many features that were not found in other spiders, even genera other than Langona.{{sfn|Haddad|Wesołowska|2011|page=82}} The name of the species is based on a Latin word meaning hairy, and relates to the hairy pedipalps of the male.{{sfn|Haddad|Wesołowska|2011|page=79}}

Langona hirsuta is large and hairy.{{sfn|Wesołowska|2006|page=237}} The male has a carapace that is between {{convert|2|and|2.1|mm|in|abbr=on}} in length and {{convert|1.5|and|1.7|mm|in|abbr=on}} in width. The carapace is quite high, oval, dark brown and hairy. The abdomen is a black-brown oval. It is between {{convert|1.9|and|2|mm|in|abbr=on}} long and between {{convert|1.4|and|1.5|mm|in|abbr=on}} wide. The black eye field is short and bristled.{{sfn|Haddad|Wesołowska|2011|page=80}} On some specimens, there is a vague pattern on light streaks on the eye field.{{sfn|Haddad|Wesołowska|2013|page=487}} The underside is a lighter brown.{{sfn|Haddad|Wesołowska|2011|page=81}} The clypeus is brown with dark hairs and the chelicerae are toothless.{{sfn|Haddad|Wesołowska|2011|page=80}} The legs are yellow to brown and spiney. The forward spinnerets are dark and the rearmost are pale. The pedipalps are brown and very hairy. The cymbium is narrow. The pedipalp tibia has a single apophysis, or appendage and the palpal bulb has a triangular lobe at the rear. The embolus is hidden between the bulb and cymbium. It is also coiled, very long and thin.{{sfn|Haddad|Wesołowska|2011|page=81}}

The female is larger than the male, with a carapace that is between {{convert|3.2|and|3.7|mm|in|abbr=on}} long and between {{convert|2.5|and|2.8|mm|in|abbr=on}} wide. The abdomen is particularly larger, being between {{convert|4.1|and|4.4|mm|in|abbr=on}} in length and between {{convert|3.5|and|4|mm|in|abbr=on}} in width.{{sfn|Haddad|Wesołowska|2011|page=80}} The carapace is shaped like a pear, high and covered with dense white hairs. The abdomen is much wider and looks swollen. It is very light brown and has short brown and orange hairs. In some specimens there is a pattern of three light spots surrounding an irregular streak across the middle of the abdomen. There are sometimes dark diagonal patches on the sides. The epigyne has two hollows that are shaped like sickles. The seminal ducts are wide and coiled, which lead to large receptacles that are many-chambered.{{sfn|Haddad|Wesołowska|2011|page=81}}

Like other Lagona spiders, the chelicerae are toothless. and there is a single appendage on the pedipalp tibia, which enables it to be distinguished from other Aelurillinae.{{sfn|Hęciak|Prószyński|1983|page=207}} The different Langona species generally cannot be distinguished from each other or from other members of the group by either their colours or the patterns that appear on their bodies, but by the structure of the copulatory organs.{{sfn|Wesołowska|2007|page=783}} It is particularly similar to Lagona bitumorata, although that spider is found in Tanzania. The species can be distinguished by the long dense hairs on the tibial apophysis.{{sfn|Haddad|Wesołowska|2011|page=79}} It resembles the related Langona sabulosa, but may be identified by its longer tibial palpal apophysis and wider palpal bulb as well as its brown hairy pedipalps.{{sfn|Wesołowska|2011|page=327}}

Langona hirsuta is endemic to South Africa.{{sfn|Haddad|Wesołowska|2013|page=494}} The holotype was found in the nature reserve near Erfenis Dam, Free State, in 2009. Other examples have been identified in Free State National Botanical Garden, the area around Krugersdrift Dam, Sandveld Nature Reserve, as well as farms near to Brandfort Boshof, Bothaville and Kimberley.{{sfn|Haddad|Wesołowska|2011|page=82}} It has also been discovered in the Lekgalameetse Provincial Park in Limpopo.{{sfn|Haddad|Wesołowska|2013|page=487}} It is common in semi-arid regions. It Is ground-dwelling, and has been observed to live under rocks.{{sfn|Haddad|Wesołowska|2011|page=82}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite journal | last1=Haddad | first1=Charles R. | last2=Wesołowska | first2=Wanda | year=2011 | title=New Species and New Records of Jumping Spiders (Araneae: Salticidae) from Central South Africa | journal=African Invertebrates | volume=52 | number=1 | pages=51–134 | doi=10.5733/afin.052.0105 | s2cid=86586010 | doi-access=free | author-link2=Wanda Wesołowska}}
• {{cite journal | last1=Haddad | first1=Charles R. | last2=Wesołowska | first2=Wanda | year=2013 | title=Additions to the Jumping Spider Fauna of South Africa (Araneae: Salticidae) | journal=Genus | volume=24 | number=3–4|pages=459–501}}
• {{cite journal | last1=Hęciak | first1=Stefania | last2=Prószyński | first2=Jerzy | year=1983 | title=Remarks on Langona Simon (Araneae, Salticidae) | journal=Annales Zoologici, Warszawa | issue=37 | pages=207–233 | author-link2=Jerzy Prószyński}}
• {{cite journal | last1=Maddison | first1=Wayne P. |title=A phylogenetic classification of jumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae) | journal=The Journal of Arachnology | year= 2015 | volume=43 | number=3 | pages=231–292 | doi=10.1636/arac-43-03-231-292|s2cid=85680279 | author-link=Wayne Maddison}}
• {{cite journal | last=Prószyński | first=Jerzy | year=2017 | title=Pragmatic classification of the World's Salticidae (Araneae) | journal=Ecologica Montenegrina | volume=12 | pages=1–133 | doi=10.37828/em.2017.12.1| doi-access=free }}
• {{cite journal | last=Wesołowska | first=Wanda | year=2006 | title=Jumping spiders from the Brandberg massif in Namibia (Araneae: Salticidae) | journal=African Entomology | volume=14 | pages=225–256}}
• {{cite journal | last=Wesołowska | first=Wanda |year=2007 | title=A new species of Langona from South Africa (Araneae: Salticidae: Aelurillinae) | journal=Genus | volume=18 | pages=783–786 | url=http://www.biol.uni.wroc.pl/cassidae/Wesolowska_Langona%20warchalowskii.pdf}}
• {{cite journal | last=Wesołowska | first=Wanda | year=2011 | title=New species and new records of jumping spiders from Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe (Araneae: Salticidae) | journal=Genus | volume=22 | number=2 | pages=307–346

| url=https://archive.org/details/genus-0867-1710-22-2-307-346}}

• {{cite journal | last1=Wesołowska | first1=Wanda | last2=Haddad | first2=Charles R. | date=2013 |title=New data on the jumping spiders of South Africa (Araneae: Salticidae)|journal=African Invertebrates | volume=54 | issue=1 | pages=177–240 | doi=10.5733/afin.054.0111|s2cid=59450669|url=http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.5733/afin.054.0111 | doi-access=free}}
• {{cite journal | last=Wiśniewski | first=Konrad | title=Over 40 years with jumping spiders: on the 70th birthday of Wanda Wesołowska | journal=Zootaxa | volume=4899 | number=1 | year=2020 | pages=5–14 | doi=10.11646/zootaxa.4899.1.3 | pmid=33756825 | s2cid=232337200}}

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{{Taxonbar|from=Q2590048}}

Category:Endemic spiders of South Africa

Category:Salticidae

Category:Spiders of South Africa

Category:Spiders described in 2011

Category:Taxa named by Wanda Wesołowska