Mogrus mirabilis

Mogrus mirabilis is a jumping spider that was first described by Wanda Wesołowska and Antonius Van Harten in 1994.{{cite web|author=World Spider Catalog|year=2021|title=Mogrus mirabilis Wesolowska & van Harten, 1994|website=World Spider Catalog|publisher=Natural History Museum|place=Bern|url=https://wsc.nmbe.ch/species/30900/Mogrus_mirabilis|version=22.0|accessdate=5 March 2021}} It is one of over 500 species identified by the Polish arachnologist Wesołowska during her career.{{sfn|Wiśniewski|2020|page=6}} They allocated the species to the genus Mogrus, first raised by Eugène Simon in 1882.{{sfn|Prószyński|2003|page=99}} It is likely to be synonymous with Mogrus sinaicus, first described in by Jerzy Prószyński in 2000.{{sfn|Logunov|2004|page=89}}

In Wayne Maddison's 2015 study of spider phylogenetic classification, the genus Mogrus was placed in the clade Simonida within the subfamily Saltafresia.{{sfn|Maddison|2015|page=279}} He considered that it a member of the tribe Salticini.{{sfn|Maddison|2015|page=280}} Two years later, in 2017, Jerzy Prószyński grouped the genus with nine other genera of jumping spiders under the name Hyllines, which was named after the genus Hyllus. He used the shape of the embolus as a distinguishing sign for the group.{{sfn|Prószyński|2017|page=35}} Hyllines was itself tentatively placed within a supergroup named Hylloida.{{sfn|Prószyński|2017|page=31}}

The male and the female of the species differ substantially. The male has a brownish-yellow carapace, or hard shell on the top of the cephalothorax, that is typically {{convert|2.38|mm|in|abbr=on}} long and {{convert|1.7|mm|in|abbr=on}} wide. It has wide yellow stripes on its edges. The underside of the cephalothorax, or sternum, is yellow The eye field is black. The clypeus is yellowish with a covering of scales the colour of sand. The chelicerae are brownish and the labium is yellow. The abdomen is greyish-yellow on the top with wide broken brownish band down the middle. It is typically {{convert|2.5|mm|in|abbr=on}} long and {{convert|1.53|mm|in|abbr=on}} wide. The sides and bottom of the abdomen are yellow, as are the spinnerets and the legs, which have a covering of straw-coloured hairs.{{sfn|Logunov|2004|page=89}} The pedipalps are yellow and the palpal bulb is brown. It has a narrow cymbium and long bent tibial apophysis, that thins towards its sharp tip. The spider has a long thin embolus.{{sfn|Logunov|2004|page=88}}

The female is larger than the male. It has a carapace that is typically {{convert|3.0|mm|in|abbr=on}} long and {{convert|2.3|mm|in|abbr=on}} wide and an abdomen typically {{convert|4.7|mm|in|abbr=on}} long and {{convert|3.2|mm|in|abbr=on}} wide.{{sfn|Wesołowska|van Harten|1994|page=58}} The carapace is dark brown and the eye field is black. There are long brown bristles on the eye field with white hairs near the eyes. There are also white hairs that form two patches on the carapace sides. The clypeus is low with scarce white hairs. The chelicerae is dark brown with a single tooth to the front and two to the back. The labium is also dark brown. The sternum are brown. The abdomen is greyish white on top, with a brown stripe down the middle of the back third. The underside is light with traces of three dark stripes along its length. The spinnerets are light grey and legs orange.{{sfn|Wesołowska|van Harten|1994|page=60}} The epigyne is generally featureless on the outside, with copulatory ducts that lead to swollen insemination ducts that are reminiscent of large ovoid chambers and narrow bean-shaped receptacles.{{sfn|Wesołowska|van Harten|1994|page=61}}

The spider is similar to others in the genus. The male has similarities for Mogrus antoninus, which lives in Central Asia, Mogrus frontosus that comes from Corsica and Mogrus logunovi that is found in Jordan and Israel. It can be distinguished by the position of the bulging tegular apophysis, which is to the side rather than near the top, and, particularly, by the larger bent and sharp tibial apophysis. The female is almost indistinguishable from Mogrus sinaicus, the epigynes of the two species being nearly identical.{{sfn|Logunov|2004|page=89}} It is also related to Mogrus fulvovittatus, differing only in the internal structure of the epigyne.{{sfn|Wesołowska|van Harten|1994|page=60}} The females first identified in Saudi Arabia were initially thought to be a possible match for male of that species.{{sfn|Prószyński|1989|page=39}}

Mogrus mirabilis lives in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen. The holotype was discovered between Qatabah and Aden in Yemen in 1993.{{sfn|Wesołowska|van Harten|1994|page=58}} Examples have been found in the Al Mahwit and Lahij Governorates.{{sfn|Wesołowska|van Harten|2007|page=267}} The first male example was found near Wadi Hanifa in Sudan in 1964.{{sfn|Logunov|2004|page=89}} Examples in Saudi Arabia were found near Wadi Hanifa in 1978, Hakimah in 1980 and Khasm Khafs in 1980.{{sfn|Prószyński|1989|pages=42, 44}}{{sfn|Prószyński|2003|page=107}} The species has also been found near the Siwa Oasis in Egypt.{{sfn|Logunov|2004|page=89}} In 1982, an example was discovered in the Sinai Peninsula. In 1986, the spider was first collected in Iraq, near Baiji. The first example in Jordan was discovered at Wadi Rum near the border with Saudi Arabia in 2004. These were identified as being examples of the species in 2015.{{sfn|Logunov|2015|page=70}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite journal | last=Logunov | first=Dmitri V. | year=2004 | title=Taxonomic notes on a collection of jumping spiders from Sudan (Araneae, Salticidae) | journal=Bulletin of the British Arachnological Society | volume=13 | pages=86–90}}
• {{cite journal | last=Logunov | first=Dmitri V. | year=2015 | title=Таксономически-фаунистические заметки о пауках-скакунчиках Средиземноморья (Aranei: Salticidae). | trans-title=Taxonomic-faunistic notes on the jumping spiders of the Mediterranean (Aranei: Salticidae) | journal=Arthropoda Selecta | volume=24 | number=1 | pages=33–85 | doi=10.15298/arthsel.24.1.03| doi-access=free }}
• {{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 | last=Prószyński | first=Jerzy | year=1989 | title=Salticidae (Araneae) of Saudi Arabia | journal=Fauna Saudi Arabia | issue=10 | pages=31–64 | author-link=Jerzy Prószyński}}
• {{cite journal | last=Prószyński | first=Jerzy | year=2003 | title=Salticidae (Araneae) of the Levant | journal=Annales Zoologici, Warszawa | issue=53 | pages=1–180 | author-link=Jerzy Prószyński}}
• {{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 book | last1=Wesołowska | first1=Wanda | last2=van Harten | first2=Antonius | year=1994 | title=The jumping spiders (Salticidae, Araneae) of Yemen | publisher=Yemeni-German Plant Protection Project | location=Sana'a}}
• {{cite journal | last1=Wesołowska | first1=Wanda | last2=van Harten | first2=Antonius | year=2007 | title=Additions to the knowledge of jumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae) of Yemen | journal=Fauna of Arabia | issue=23 | pages=189–269}}
• {{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=Q1983955}}

Category:Spiders of Iraq

Category:Spiders of Jordan

Category:Fauna of Saudi Arabia

Category:Fauna of Yemen

Category:Spiders of Egypt

Category:Invertebrates of Sudan

Category:Invertebrates of the Arabian Peninsula

Category:Salticidae

Category:Spiders described in 1994

Category:Spiders of Asia

Category:Taxa named by Wanda Wesołowska