Menemerus transvaalicus

Menemerus transvaalicus 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 transvaalicus Wesolowska, 1999|website=World Spider Catalog|publisher=Natural History Museum|location=Bern|url=http://www.wsc.nmbe.ch/species/30762/Menemerus_transvaalicus|version=18.0|access-date=8 June 2017}} It was one of over 500 species identified by the Polish arachnologist during her career, making her one of the most prolific in the field.{{sfn|Wiśniewski|2020|page=6}} She allocated the spider to the genus Menemerus.{{sfn|Wesołowska|1999|page=251}} The genus was first described 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}} The species was placed in the tribe Heliophaninae, which was renamed 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, 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 name of the province where it was first found, Transvaal.{{sfn|Wesołowska|1999|page=339}}

Menemerus transvaalicus is a small spider. The male has a carapace that is between {{convert|2.1|and|2.4|mm|in}} long and {{convert|1.5|and|1.8|mm|in}} wide. It is dark brown and covered in brown hairs apart from two white hairy bands along the edges. The eye field is black and bristles can be found near the eyes. The spider has a very low white clypeus, dark brown chelicerae and brownish-orange sternum. The labium and maxilae are light brown. It has an abdomen that is between {{convert|2.0|and|2.6|mm|in}} long and {{convert|1.6|and|2.0|mm|in}} wide. It is generally fawn to dark brown and has many yellowish-grey and brown hairs, There is a yellowish leaf-shaped pattern, sometimes very indistinct, on the top while the underside sometimes has a dark wide stripe on an otherwise lighter shade. It has light brown spinnerets and orange to brown legs. The pedipalps, which are brown with white hairs, have two tibial apophyses, a large lump at the base of the cymbium and a double embolus with a narrow conductor.{{sfn|Wesołowska|1999|page=339}}

The female is larger than the male with a carapace that is between {{convert|2.2|and|2.5|mm|in}} in length and {{convert|1.6|and|1.9|mm|in}} in width and an abdomen that is between {{convert|2.5|and|3.6|mm|in}} long and {{convert|1.7|and|2.0|mm|in}} wide. It is otherwise very similar to the male. The carapace is similar, but with white and brown hairs. The maxillae are brown with pale tips. The abdomen has a more distinctive pattern.{{sfn|Wesołowska|1999|page=339}} The epigyne has two central oval depressions and a very wide pocket.{{sfn|Wesołowska|1999|page=340}} The insemination ducts are narrow and looping, with large spermathecae.{{sfn|Wesołowska|1999|page=341}}

Spiders of the Menemerus genus are difficult to distinguish.{{sfn|Wesołowska|1999|page=252}} Indeed, some examples of this species were originally incorrectly identified as Menemerus soldani.{{sfn|Wesołowska|1999|page=339}} The abdominal pattern helps to identify the species, but a study of the copulatory organs is needed to confirm each spider's identity.{{sfn|Wesołowska|1999|page=294}} This species is particularly similar to the related Menemerus bifurcus, but differs in the shape of the male embolus, and particularly the existence of the conductor, and the lack of a triangular retrolateral bulb below the dorsal spike. The female is harder to identify but has substantially less sclerotization on the copulatory openings.{{sfn|Wesołowska|1999|page=339}}

Due to their good eyesight, Menemerus spiders are mostly diurnal hunters. They attack using a complex approach to their prey and are generally more proactive in comparison to web-spinning spiders.{{sfn|Richman|Jackson|1992|page=33}} The related Menemerus bifurcus lives in the tops of trees and descends to attack prey on long threads of silk.{{sfn|Wesołowska|Cumming|2008|pages=196}} The spiders will eat a wide range of prey, including nectar.{{sfn|Jackson|Pollard|Nelson|Edwards|2001|page=27}} They undertake complex displays and dances during courtship.{{sfn|Richman|Jackson|1992|page=34}} The males also undertake aggressive displays between themselves.{{sfn|Richman|Jackson|1992|page=35}}

Menemerus spiders are found throughout Africa and Asia, and have been identified as far as Latin America.{{sfn|Mariante|Hill|2020|page=3}} Menemerus transvaalicus lives in Lesotho and South Africa. The male holotype was found in the Marievale Bird Sanctuary in 1990.{{sfn|Wesołowska|1999|page=339}} Examples have been found throughout the Eastern Cape, Free State and Gauteng provinces.{{sfn|Haddad|Wesołowska|2011|page=87}} The first examples to be found in Lesotho were discovered in Moshoeshoe I International Airport near Maseru in 1977, and later near the Mohale Dam and in Qacha's Nek District in 2003.{{sfn|Wesołowska|Haddad|2014|page=253}} The species often lives in the barks of trees, particularly Eucalyptus, and on the walls of buildings.{{sfn|Haddad|Wesołowska|2011|page=87}}

{{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 | 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 | bibcode=2011AfrIn..52...51H | s2cid=86586010 | doi-access=free | author-link2=Wanda Wesołowska}}
• {{cite journal | last1=Jackson | first1=Robert R. | last2=Pollard | first2=Simon D. | last3=Nelson | first3=Ximena J. | last4=Edwards | first4=G. B. | first5=Alberto T. | last5=Barrion | title=Jumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae) that feed on nectar | journal=Journal of Zoology | volume=255 | number=1 | year=2001 | pages=25–29 | doi=10.1017/S095283690100108X}}
• {{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 | last1=Richman | first1=David B. | last2=Jackson | first2=Robert R. | title=A review of the ethology of jumping spiders (Araneae, Salticidae) | journal= Bulletin of the British Arachnology Society | year=1992 | volume=9 | number=2 | pages=33–37}}
• {{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}}
• {{cite journal | last1=Wesołowska | first1=Wanda | last2=Cumming | first2=Meg S. | year=2008 | title=Taxonomy and Natural History of a Species Rich Assemblage of Jumping Spiders (Araneae: Salticidae); A Long-Term Study of a Suburban Site in Zimbabwe | journal=Annales Zoologici | volume=58 | number=1 | pages=167–230 | doi=10.3161/067.058.0108 | s2cid=83575177}}
• {{cite journal | last1=Wesołowska | first1=Wanda | last2=Haddad | first2=Charles R. | date=2014 |title=An overview of the jumping spiders of Lesotho (Araneae: Salticidae), with descriptions of six new species: arachnida | journal=African Invertebrates | volume=55 | number=2 | pages=229–268 | url=https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC161755}}
• {{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}}

{{refend}}

{{Taxonbar|from=Q3437066}}

Category:Fauna of Lesotho

Category:Salticidae

Category:Spiders described in 1999

Category:Spiders of Africa

Category:Spiders of South Africa

Category:Taxa named by Wanda Wesołowska