Stenaelurillus pecten

Stenaelurillus pecten was first described by Wanda Wesołowska in 2014.{{cite web|author=World Spider Catalog|year=2017|title=Stenaelurillus pecten Wesolowska, 2014|website=World Spider Catalog|publisher=Natural History Museum|place=Bern|url=http://www.wsc.nmbe.ch/species/53937/Stenaelurillus_pecten|version=18.0|access-date=27 November 2017}} It is one of over 500 species identified by the Polish arachnologist.{{sfn|Wiśniewski|2020|page=6}} It was allocated to the genus Stenaelurillus, first raised by Eugène Simon in 886.{{sfn|Logunov|2020|page=202}} The genus name relates to the genus name Aelurillus, which itself derives from the Greek word for cat, with the addition of a Greek stem meaning narrow.{{sfn|Fernández-Rubio|2013|page=125}} It was placed in the subtribe Aelurillina in the tribe Aelurillini by Wayne Maddison in 2015, which is itself part of the clade Saltafresia.{{sfn|Maddison|2015|page=279}} Two year later, in 2017, It was subsequently grouped with nine other genera of jumping spiders under the name Aelurillines.{{sfn|Prószyński|2017|page=95}} The species name is the Latin word for comb and recalls the shape of the appendages on the male palpal bulb.{{sfn|Wesołowska|2014|page=612}}

The spider is small. The male has a cephalothorax that measures between {{convert|2.3|and|2.8|mm|in|abbr=on}} in length and between {{convert|1.6|and|2.2|mm|in|abbr=on}} in width. It has a dark brown oval carapace that is covered in dense brown hairs. Two stripes of white hairs line the edge which looks like brushes and another two cross the thorax. The abdomen is oval, jet black with long dark bristles, between {{convert|2.2|and|2.8|mm|in|abbr=on}} long and {{convert|1.7|and|2.2|mm|in|abbr=on}} wide. The eye field is black, spinnerets brown and legs yellow. The pedipalps are also yellow, covered in dense black hairs. It can be distinguished from other members of the genus by its comb like appendages on the embolus, which is thin and delicate.{{sfn|Wesołowska|2014|page=612}}

The female is very similar to the male. It is similar in size with a cephalothorax between {{convert|2.5|and|3.1|mm|in|abbr=on}} long and {{convert|1.9|and|2.3|mm|in|abbr=on}} wide and an abdomen between {{convert|3.1|and|3.6|in|abbr=on}} long and {{convert|2.3|and|2.7|mm|in|abbr=on}} wide. The abdomen has two white spots towards the back of the spider. {{sfn|Wesołowska|2014|page=612}} As in the similar Stenaelurillus abramovi and Stenaelurillus lesserti, the copulatory openings in the epigyne are close together.{{sfn|Logunov|Azarkina|2018|page=8}} However, it is distinguishable from other species by the way that the copulatory openings are closely aligned with each other.{{sfn|Wesołowska|2014|page=612}}

The distribution includes both Botswana and Zambia.{{sfn|Wesołowska|2014|page=597}}{{sfn|Logunov|Azarkina|2018|page=117}} The holotype was identified near Lusaka, Zambia, based on a specimen collected in 1979. It has also been found near Mumbwa and in the Moremi Game Reserve in Botswana.{{sfn|Wesołowska|2014|page=612}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

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• {{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 | last=Logunov | first=Dmitri V. | year=2020 | title=Further notes on the genus Stenaelurillus Simon, 1885 from India (Araneae: Salticidae) | journal=Zootaxa | volume=4899 | number=1 | pages=201–214 | doi=10.11646/zootaxa.4899.1.11 | pmid=33756833 | s2cid=232339218 }}
• {{cite journal | last1=Logunov | first1=Dmitri V. | last2=Azarkina | first2=Galina N. | year=2018 | title=Redefinition and partial revision of the genus Stenaelurillus Simon, 1886 (Arachnida, Araneae, Salticidae) | journal=European Journal of Taxonomy | volume=430 | pages=1–126 | doi=10.5852/ejt.2018.430| doi-access=free | url=https://zenodo.org/record/3787622/files/source.pdf }}
• {{cite journal | last1=Maddison | first1=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 }}
• {{cite journal | last=Wesołowska | first=Wanda | year=2014 | title=Further notes on the genus Stenaelurillus Simon, 1885 (Araneae, Salticidae) in Africa with descriptions of eight new species | journal=Zoosystema | volume=36 | number=3 | pages=595–622 | doi=10.5252/z2014n3a3|s2cid=86684221|url=https://zenodo.org/record/5159326/files/source.pdf | accessdate=7 December 2017| url-access= | url-status= | archive-url= | archive-date= }}
• {{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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Category:Arthropods of Botswana

Category:Invertebrates of Zambia

Category:Salticidae

Category:Spiders described in 2014

Category:Spiders of Africa

Category:Taxa named by Wanda Wesołowska