Menemerus pulcher

Menemerus pulcher is a species of jumping spider that was first described by Wanda Wesołowska in 1999.{{cite web|author=World Spider Catalog|year=2017|title=Menemerus pulcher Wesolowska, 1999|website=World Spider Catalog|publisher=Natural History Museum|location=Bern|url=http://www.wsc.nmbe.ch/species/30751/Menemerus_pulcher|version=18.0|access-date=8 June 2017}} It was one of over 500 species identified by the Polish scientist during her career, the most prolific describer in modern arachnology.{{sfn|Wiśniewski|2020|page=6}} She allocated the spider to the genus Menemerus.{{sfn|Wesołowska|1999|page=251}} The genus was first circumscribed in 1868 by Eugène Simon and contains over 60 species.{{sfn|Mariante|Hill|2020|page=1}} The genus name derives from two Greek words, meaning certainly and diurnal.{{sfn|Fernández-Rubio|2013|page=128}} The genus shares some characteristics with the genera Hypaeus and Pellenes.{{sfn|Maddison|2015|page=233}}

Genetic analysis has shown that the genus Menemerus is related to the genera Helvetia and Phintella.{{sfn|Maddison|Hedin|2003|page=541}} It was placed in the tribe Heliophaninae, which was reconstituted as Chrysillini by Wayne Maddison in 2015.{{sfn|Maddison|2015|page=231}} The tribe is ubiquitous across most continents of the world.{{sfn|Maddison|Hedin|2003|page=541}} It is allocated to the subclade Saltafresia in the clade Salticoida.{{sfn|Maddison|2015|page=278}} In 2016, Jerzy Prószyński created a group of genera named Menemerines after the genus.{{sfn|Prószyński|2017|page=112}} The vast majority of the species in Menemerines are members of the genus, with additional examples from Kima and Leptorchestes.{{sfn|Prószyński|2017|page=116}} The species name derives from the Latin for beautiful, {{lang|la|pulcher}}.{{sfn|Wesołowska|1999|page=323}}

Menemerus pulcher is a small spider. The male has a very high carapace that is typically {{convert|2.6|mm|in|abbr=on|2}} long and {{convert|2.0|mm|in|abbr=on|2}} wide. It is dark brown, covered with dense white hairs, with narrow white stripes formed of white hairs down its back. The black eye field has brown bristles near the eyes. The underside, or sternum, is orange-yellow. The face, or clypeus, is also covered in white hairs. The mouthparts are distinctive. The chelicerae are brown and the maxilae and labium are orange-yellow. The abdomen is typically {{convert|2.8|mm|in|abbr=on|2}} long and {{convert|2.2|mm|in|abbr=on|2}} wide. It is more rounded than other species in the genus. The top is yellowish-fawn.{{sfn|Wesołowska|1999|page=323}} It has a distinctive pattern including a russet stripe and dark shapes that look a bit like a fleur-de-lys overlaid on a bell and wavy lines. It is covered in greyish and brown hairs. The underside is yellow. The spinnerets are brown. The front legs are dark brown, the second orange and the remainder yellow. They all have brown hairs and spines. The pedipalps are brown. The spider has distinctive copulatory organs. The double embolus is small.{{sfn|Wesołowska|1999|page=324}} It is hard to distinguish between its two parts, the conductor and the distal lamella.{{sfn|Wesołowska|1999|page=348}} The palpal bulb has a distinctive arrangement of three tibial appendages, or apophyses. Two are large and run parallel near the top of the tibia. The other is very small. There is a large lump at the bottom of the palpal femur.{{sfn|Wesołowska|1999|page=324}} The female has not been described.

Spiders of the Menemerus genus are difficult to distinguish.{{sfn|Wesołowska|1999|page=252}} This species is very similar to Menemerus plenus, particularly in its external appearance.{{sfn|Wesołowska|1999|page=325}} Both are unusual in the genus in having a high carapace.{{sfn|Wesołowska|1999|page=254}} The copulatory organs, however, are distinctive, particularly the existence of the two large parallel retrolateral apophyses.{{sfn|Wesołowska|1999|page=323}}

Menemerus spiders are found throughout Africa and Asia, and have been identified as far as Latin America.{{sfn|Mariante|Hill|2020|page=3}} Menemerus pulcher is endemic to Mauritania. The male holotype was found {{convert|31|km|abbr=on}} south of Nouakchott in 1994.{{sfn|Wesołowska|1999|page=323}} It has only been found on the west of the country.{{sfn|Wesołowska|1999|page=325}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite journal | last=Fernández-Rubio | first=Fidel | title=La etimología de los nombres de las arañas (Araneae) | trans-title=The etymology of the names of spiders (Araneae) | journal=Revista ibérica de Aracnología | number=22 | pages=125–130 | issn=1576-9518 | year=2013 | language=ES}}
• {{cite journal | last=Maddison | first=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 | last1=Maddison | first1=Wayne P. | last2=Hedin | first2=Marshal C. | title=Jumping spider phylogeny (Araneae: Salticidae) | journal=Invertebrate Systematics | volume=17 | number=4 | year=2003 | pages=529–549 | doi=10.1071/IS02044}}
• {{cite journal | last1=Mariante | first1=Rafael M. | last2=Hill | first2=David E. | year=2020 | title=First report of the Asian jumping spider Menemerus nigli (Araneae: Salticidae: Chrysillini) in Brazil | journal=Peckhamia | volume=205 | number=1 | pages=1–21 | doi=10.5281/zenodo.3875200}}
• {{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 | author-link=Jerzy Prószyński}}
• {{cite journal | last=Wesołowska | first=Wanda | year=1999 | title=A revision of the spider genus Menemerus in Africa (Araneae: Salticidae) | journal=Genus | volume=10 | pages=251–353 | url=http://www.cassidae.uni.wroc.pl/menemerus.pdf | author-link=Wanda Wesołowska}}
• {{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=Q2028962}}

Category:Endemic fauna of Mauritania

Category:Salticidae

Category:Spiders described in 1999

Category:Spiders of North Africa

Category:Taxa named by Wanda Wesołowska