Mexcala meridiana

Mexcala meridiana is a jumping spider that was first described by the Polish arachnologist Wanda Wesołowska in 2009, one of over 500 species she identified during her career.{{cite web|author=World Spider Catalog|year=2017|title=Mexcala meridiana Wesolowska, 2009|website=World Spider Catalog|publisher=Natural History Museum|place=Bern|url=https://wsc.nmbe.ch/species/30841/Mexcala_meridiana|version=18.0|access-date=9 June 2017}}{{sfn|Wiśniewski|2020|page=6}} She allocated the species to the genus Mexcala, first raised by George and Elizabeth Peckham in 1902 as part of a thorough revision of the genus.{{sfn|Wiśniewski|2020|page=6}}{{sfn|Wesołowska|2009|page=149}} The genus was a member of the tribe Heliophaninae alongside Pseudicius and Cosmophasis, which was absorbed into Chrysillini by Wayne Maddison in 2015.{{sfn|Maddison|Bodner|Needham|2008|page=57}}{{sfn|Maddison|2015|page=252}} The tribe is a member of the clade Saltafresia within the subfamily Salticoida.{{sfn|Maddison|2015|page=278}} A year later, in 2016, Jerzy Prószyński allocated the genus to the Heliophanines group of genera, which was named after the genus Heliophanus. The genera share characteristics, including having a rather uniform, mainly dark appearance.{{sfn|Prószyński|2017|page=29}} The species itself has a name that is derived from the Latin word for southern and refers to it being found in Southern Africa.{{sfn|Wesołowska|2009|page=168}}

Like all Mexcala spiders, the species is slender and medium-sized.{{sfn|Wesołowska|2009|page=152}} The female has a brown carapace covered in dense brown hairs that is typically {{convert|3.0|mm|in|abbr=on}} long. The eye field is darker with black markings around the eyes. It has light brown mouthparts with yellow edges to the maxilla. The abdomen is typically {{convert|4.0|mm|in|abbr=on}} long, brownish on top and darker underneath, with a pattern of two lighter streaks It has light brown legs. The epigyne has a large shallow depression. The copulatory canals are separate to each other and lead to very simple internal copulatory organs. This differentiates the species from others in the genus.{{sfn|Wesołowska|2009|page=166}} The male has not been described.

Like many jumping spiders, Wesołowska and Tamás Szűts noted that Mexcala spiders mimic ants.{{sfn|Wesołowska|Szűts|2001|page=523}} The species lives amongst various different species of ant and ant-like wasps that it mimics, and preys upon.{{sfn|Wesołowska|2009|page=152}}{{sfn|Pekár|Petráková Dušátková|Haddad|2020|page=6}} Like other jumping spiders, it is a mainly diurnal hunter that uses its good eyesight to spot its prey.{{sfn|Richman|Jackson|1992|page=33}} It attacks from the front and captures its prey behind the head.{{sfn|Pekár|Petráková Dušátková|Haddad|2020|page=5}} The chelicerae have short thick spines on them which may be used for digging holes to act as underground hiding places.{{sfn|Wesołowska|2009|page=153}} It uses visual displays during courtship and transmits vibratory signals through silk to communicate to other spiders.{{sfn|Richman|Jackson|1992|page=34}}

Mexcala spiders can be found across Africa and the Arabian peninsula.{{sfn|Wesołowska|2009|page=153}} Mexcala meridiana is endemic to South Africa. The holotype was found near Sabie in Mpumalanga in 1927.{{sfn|Wesołowska|2009|page=168}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{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=Bodner| first2=Melissa R. | last3=Needham | first3=Karen M. | year=2008 | title=Salticid spider phylogeny revisited, with the discovery of a large Australasian clade (Araneae: Salticidae) | journal=Zootaxa | volume=1893| pages=49–64 | doi=10.11646/zootaxa.1893.1.3}}
• {{cite journal | last1=Pekár | first1=Stano | last2=Petráková Dušátková | first2=Lenka | last3=Haddad | first3=Charles R. | year=2020 | title=No ontogenetic shift in the realised trophic niche but in Batesian mimicry in an ant-eating spider | journal=Scientific Reports | volume=10 | number=1250 | doi=10.1038/s41598-020-58281-3 | url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-58281-3| doi-access=free | pmc=6985134 }}
• {{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 | author-link=Jerzy Prószyński| doi-access=free}}
• {{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 | last1=Wesołowska | first1=Wanda | last2=Szűts | first2=Tamás | year=2001 | title=A New Genus of Ant-Like Jumping Spiders from Africa (Araneae: Salticidae) | journal=Annales Zoologici | volume=51 | number=4 | pages=523–528 | author-link1=Wanda Wesołowska}}
• {{cite journal | last=Wesołowska | first=Wanda | year=2009 | title=A revision of the spider genus Mexcala Peckham and Peckham, 1902 (Araneae: Salticidae) | journal=Genus | volume=20 | number=1 | pages=149–186 | url=https://archive.org/details/genus-0867-1710-20-149}}
• {{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=Q2144945}}

Category:Endemic spiders of South Africa

Category:Salticidae

Category:Spiders described in 2009

Category:Spiders of South Africa

Category:Taxa named by Wanda Wesołowska