Rhene formosa

Rhene formosa is a species of jumping spider, a member of the family Salticidae. The spider was first described by the arachnologists Christine Rollard and Wanda Wesołowska in 2002.{{cite web|author=World Spider Catalog|year=2017|title=Rhene facilis Rollard & Wesołowska, 2002|website=World Spider Catalog|publisher=Natural History Museum|place=Bern|url=http://www.wsc.nmbe.ch/species/32361/Rhene_formosa|version=18.0|accessdate=22 May 2017}} They allocated it to the genus Rhene, which is named after the Greek female name shared by mythological figures. The specific name "facilis" is derived from a Latin word that can be translated {{gloss|shapely}} and recalls the body shape of the spider.{{sfn|Rollard|Wesołowska|2002|page=304}}{{sfn|Thorell|1869|page=37}}

First circumscribed in 1869 by Tamerlan Thorell, the genus Rhene is a part of the subtribe Dendryphantina in the tribe Dendryphantini.{{sfn|Rollard|Wesołowska|2002|page=304}}{{sfn|Maddison|2015|page=245}} Wayne Maddison allocated the tribe to the subclade Simonida in the clade Saltafresia in the clade Salticoida.{{sfn|Maddison|2015|page=278}} It is related to the genera Dendryphantes and Macaroeris. The genus is also similar to Homalattus.{{sfn|Maddison|2015|pages=246, 278}} In 2017, Jerzy Prószyński designated it a member of a group of genera named Dendryphantines after the genus Dendryphantes.{{sfn|Prószyński|2017|pages=88, 92}} He also noted that it is similar to the genera related to Simaetha, a group he named Simaethines, particularly in the shape of spider's body. {{sfn|Prószyński|2017|page=17}} The genus is known for its good eyesight and its high level of spatial awareness, which is likely to show that it is recent in evolutionary terms.{{sfn|Su|Meier|Jackson|Harland|2007|page=1485}}

Like many in the genus, Rhene formosa resembles a beetle.{{sfn|Maddison|2015|page=254}} It is a small spider with a body is divided into two main parts: a cephalothorax and an abdomen.{{sfn|Rollard|Wesołowska|2002|page=304}} The male's carapace, the hard upper part of the cephalothorax, is typically {{convert|2.2|mm|in|abbr=on}} in length, {{convert|2.1|mm|in|abbr=on}} in width and {{convert|0.9|mm|in|abbr=on}} in height. It is flat, dark brown and hairy, mostly covered with brown and grey hairs, but with a line of white hairs behind the first row of eyes. Its face, known as the clypeus, is very dark and low. Its chelicerae are dark brown with a single tooth at the back and two at the front. The spider's remaining mouthparts, including its labium and maxillae are brown.{{sfn|Rollard|Wesołowska|2002|page=305}}

The female's elongated abdomen is longer than its carapace, measuring {{convert|3.5|mm|in|abbr=on}} in length and {{convert|2.3|mm|in|abbr=on}} in width. The top of its abdomen is light beige and a vague brownish pattern that can be seen near the back. As well as a silver lustre, it has a scattering of brown hairs on it; these are particularly dense and long on the front edge. The bottom is light brown. It has brown spinnerets. The spider's legs are brownish; its front legs are longer, darker and thicker than the others and are marked with long hairs.{{sfn|Rollard|Wesołowska|2002|page=305}}

Rhene formosa has distinctive copulatory organs. It has a large epigyne, the external visible part of its copulatory organs, that shows pronounced sclerotization. It has a shallow depression in the middle and copulatory openings that are hidden in sclerotized basket-like features. The spider's insemination ducts are particularly long and thin.{{sfn|Rollard|Wesołowska|2002|page=305}} Compared to the related Rhene sororis, which shares its long thin insemination ducts, it has more sclerotization.{{sfn|Wiśniewski|Wesołowska|2024|page=120}} It has smaller spermathecae, or receptacles, than the related Rhene obscura and Rhene pinguis and lacks the ridge in the middle of the central depression that is characteristic of the former species.{{sfn|Wesołowska|van Harten|2007|page=260}}{{sfn|Wesołowska|Haddad|2018|page=903}} The male has not been described.

Although Dendryphantine spiders a predominantly found in the Americas, Rhene spiders live in Africa and Eurasia.{{sfn|Maddison|2015|page=245}} Rhene formoa is endemic to Guinea. The holotype lives in the Guinea Highlands at an altitude of {{convert|1550|m|ft|abbr=on}} above sea level in 1991. Other examples have been found in the local area. It lives on the ground amongst plants.{{sfn|Rollard|Wesołowska|2002|page=304}}

{{Wikispecies}}

{{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}}
• {{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=Rollard | first1=Christine | last2=Wesołowska | first2=Wanda | year=2002 | title=Jumping spiders (Arachnida, Araneae, Salticidae) from the Nimba Mountains in Guinea | journal=Zoosystema | volume=24 | issue=2 | pages=283–307 | url=http://sciencepress.mnhn.fr/sites/default/files/articles/pdf/z2002n2a5.pdf|access-date=5 March 2017 | doi=10.5281/zenodo.5394616 | author-link2=Wanda Wesołowska}}
• {{cite journal | last1=Su | first1=K.F. | last2=Meier | first2=R. | last3=Jackson | first3=R.R. | last4=Harland | first4=D.P. | last5=Li | first5=D. | year=2007 | title=Convergent evolution of eye ultrastructure and divergent evolution of vision‐mediated predatory behaviour in jumping spiders| journal=Journal of Evolutionary Biology | volume=20 | number=4 | pages=1478–1489 | doi=10.1111/j.1420-9101.2007.01335.x}}
• {{cite book | last=Thorell | first=Tamerlan | title=On European Spiders, Part 1: Review of the European Genera of Spiders, Preceded by Some Observations on Zoological Nomenclature | location=Uppsala | publisher=E. Berling | year=1869 | oclc=769306868}}
• {{cite journal | last1=Wesołowska | first1=Wanda | last2=Haddad | first2=Charles R. | year=2018 | title=Further additions to the jumping spider fauna of South Africa (Araneae: Salticidae) | journal=Annales Zoologici | volume=68 | number=4 | pages=879–908 | doi=10.3161/00034541ANZ2018.68.4.011 | s2cid=86626109}}
• {{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 | volume=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}}
• {{cite journal | last1=Wiśniewski | first1=Konrad | last2=Wesołowska | first2=Wanda | year=2024 | title=Jumping spiders (Salticidae) of Uganda – revised list, new species and distributional data | journal=European Journal of Taxonomy | number=952 | pages=1–171 | doi=10.5852/ejt.2024.952.2647| doi-access=free}}

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Category:Fauna of Guinea

Category:Salticidae

Category:Spiders described in 2002

Category:Spiders of Africa

Category:Taxa named by Wanda Wesołowska