Mexcala smaragdina

Mexcala smaragdina is a jumping spider that was first described by the arachnologists Wanda Wesołowska and Glavis B. Edwards in 2012.{{cite web|author=World Spider Catalog|year=2017|title=Mexcala smaragdina Wesolowska & Edwards, 2012|website=World Spider Catalog|publisher=Natural History Museum|place=Bern|url=https://wsc.nmbe.ch/species/30849/Mexcala_smaragdina |version=18.0|access-date=3 April 2017}} They allocated the species to the genus Mexcala, first raised by George and Elizabeth Peckham in 1902.{{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}}

Like all Mexcala spiders, the species is slender and medium-sized.{{sfn|Wesołowska|2009|page=152}} The male has a cephalothorax that is typically {{convert|2.5|mm|in|abbr=on}} long and typically {{convert|1.8|mm|in|abbr=on}} wide. The medium-high carapace is dark brown and covered in short delicate hairs that have an intense green-metallic shine. The eye field is black with long bristles near the eyes. The clypeus is dark and very low. The chelicerae have short spiky bristles.{{sfn|Wesołowska|Edwards|2012|page=753}} The spider has a black labium and sternum.{{sfn|Wesołowska|Edwards|2012|page=754}} The abdomen is typically {{convert|2.7|mm|in|abbr=on}} long and typically {{convert|1.7|mm|in|abbr=on}} wide.{{sfn|Wesołowska|Edwards|2012|page=753}} It is ovoid and shiny black, clothed in dark hairs that, like those covering the carapace, have a greenish golden shine. The underside is dark. The spinnerets are dark grey. The spider has long thin legs, the front ones generally black and the rearmost brown. The pedipalps are bulbous and the palpal bulb oval. The spider has a wide tibial apophysis that has a curved end. The embolus is shaped like a hook and fixed to the tegulum.{{sfn|Maddison|2015|page=252}}{{sfn|Wesołowska|Edwards|2012|page=754}} The copulatory organs are similar to Mexcala caerulea, but the embolus is shorter. The spider is otherwise most easily identified compared to others in the genus by the greenish shine on its body, after which it is named.{{sfn|Wesołowska|Edwards|2012|page=753}} The female 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 spiders live amongst the species of ant and ant-like wasps that it mimics.{{sfn|Pekár|Haddad|2011|page=133}}{{sfn|Pekár|Petráková Dušátková|Haddad|2020|page=6}} Like other jumping spiders, they are mainly a diurnal hunter that uses their good eyesight to spot their prey.{{sfn|Richman|Jackson|1992|page=33}} The spider attacks from the front and captures its prey behind the head.{{sfn|Pekár|Petráková Dušátková|Haddad|2020|page=5}} It uses visual displays during courtship and transmits vibratory signals through silk to communicate to other spiders.{{sfn|Richman|Jackson|1992|page=34}} The bristles on the chelicerae may be used for digging holes to act as underground hiding places.{{sfn|Wesołowska|2009|page=153}}

Mexcala spiders can be found across Africa and the Arabian peninsula.{{sfn|Wesołowska|2009|page=153}} Mexcala smaragdina is endemic to Nigeria. The holotype was found near Calabar in Cross River State in 1984.{{sfn|Wesołowska|Edwards|2012|page=753}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

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• {{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=Haddad | first2=Charles | title=Trophic Strategy of Ant-Eating Mexcala Elegans (Araneae: Salticidae): Looking for Evidence of Evolution of Prey-Specialization | journal=The Journal of Arachnology | volume=39 | number=1 | year=2011 | pages=133–38 | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/23048790 | doi=10.1636/Hi10-56.1| jstor=23048790 | s2cid=54702906 }}
• {{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 | page=1250 | doi=10.1038/s41598-020-58281-3 | pmid=31988373 | pmc=6985134 | doi-access=free }}
• {{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 | 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 | author-link=Wanda Wesołowska}}
• {{cite journal | last1=Wesołowska | first1=Wanda | last2=Edwards | first2=Glavis B. | year=2012 | title=Jumping Spiders (Araneae: Salticidae) of the Calabar Area (SE Nigeria) | journal=Annales Zoologici | volume=62 | number=4 | pages=733–772 | doi=10.3161/000345412X659786|s2cid=86538550|url=http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.3161/000345412X659786 | author-link2=G. B. Edwards (arachnologist)| url-access=subscription }}
• {{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}}

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{{Taxonbar|from=Q27504828}}

Category:Endemic fauna of Nigeria

Category:Salticidae

Category:Spiders described in 2012

Category:Spiders of Africa

Category:Taxa named by Wanda Wesołowska