Neaetha catula is a species of jumping spider in the genus Neaetha that lives in East and Southern Africa. The male was first described in 1886 by Eugène Simon and the female by Ludovico di Caporiacco in 1949. First discovered in Zanzibar, examples have also been identified in Kenya. The spider is small, 3 mm (0.12 in) long, with a generally black cephalothorax and abdomen, although the abdomen has a pattern of spots towards the rear and a thin line that divides it in two. The species can be distinguished from others in the genus by the lack of central pocket in the female's epigyne. This feature led Dmitri Logunov to consider whether the spider belongs to the genus.
| Neaetha catula | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae |
| Infraorder: | Araneomorphae |
| Family: | Salticidae |
| Subfamily: | Salticinae |
| Genus: | Neaetha |
| Species: | N. catula
|
| Binomial name | |
| Neaetha catula Simon, 1886
| |
Taxonomy
editNeaetha catula was first described by Eugène Simon in 1886.[1] It was allocated to the genus Neaetha, which itself had been first raised by Simon in 1884. The genus is named for two Greek words, néos, which means new, and théa, which can be translated aspect.[2] The species was considered of uncertain taxonomic status by Dmitri Logunov in 2009.[3]
The species in the genus are hard to distinguish, leading to Barbara Patoleta and Marek Żabka suggesting that to understand the relationships between the different species requires the study of genes rather than physical attributes.[4] A DNA analysis study undertaken by Wayne Maddison and Marshall Hedin identified that the genus is most closely related to the genus Salticus.[5] It has also phylogenetic] similarities with Carrhotus and Hasarius, amongst other genera of jumping spiders. The genus was placed in the subtribe Harmochirina in the tribe Plexippini by Maddison in 2015.[6] These were allocated to the clade Saltafresia.[7] The subtribe is divided into harmochirines and pellenines, and the genus is allocated to the latter group, which is characterised by living on open sunny ground.[8]
Description
editThe spider is short, measuring 3 mm (0.12 in) in length. It has a black cephalothorax that is thinner in the middle. The cephalon is yellow and covered in scales. Scales can also be found at the edges of the carapace, particularly around the thorax. A central line crosses the carapace, and another crosses the abdomen, dividing it into a plain black area towards the front and a more rearward area that has a pattern of spots. The chelicerae are also black. The legs are more colourful, although also mainly black. The pedipalps are yellow. The male has a bulbous palpal bulb and a long embolus.[9] The females of the genus are generally hard to distinguish.[10] In this species, the female has an epigyne that does not have the central pocket that is common to other members of the genus, which has led to doubts about whether it belongs to the genus.[3]
Distribution and habitat
editThe spider was first observed in Zanzibar.[9] It was subsequently also found near Mackinnon Road, Kenya.[11] The species distribution extends to East and Southern Africa.[12][13]
References
editCitations
edit- ^ World Spider Catalog (2018). "Neaetha catula Simon, 1886". World Spider Catalog. 19.5. Bern: Natural History Museum. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
- ^ Fernández-Rubio 2013, p. 128.
- ^ a b Logunov 2009, p. 270.
- ^ Patoleta & Żabka 2020, p. 382.
- ^ Maddison & Hedin 2003, p. 538.
- ^ Maddison 2015, p. 280.
- ^ Maddison 2015, p. 278.
- ^ Maddison 2015, p. 251.
- ^ a b Simon 1886, p. 391.
- ^ Wesołowska & Haddad 2018, p. 899.
- ^ Caporiacco 1949, p. 475.
- ^ Kioko et al. 2021, p. 162.
- ^ Platnick 1997, p. 912.
Bibliography
edit- Caporiacco, Ludovico di (1949). "Aracnidi della colonia del Kenya raccolti da Toschi e Meneghetti negli anni 1944-1946" [Arachnids from the Kenya colony collected by Toschi and Meneghetti in the years 1944-1946]. Commentationes Pontificia Academia Scientiarum (in Italian) (13): 309–492.
- Fernández-Rubio, Fidel (2013). "La etimología de los nombres de las arañas (Araneae)" [The etymology of the names of spiders (Araneae)]. Revista ibérica de Aracnología (in Spanish) (22): 125–130. ISSN 1576-9518.
- Kioko, Grace M.; Marusik, Yuri M.; Li, Shuqiang; Kioko, Esther N.; Ji, Liqiang (2021). "Checklist of the spiders (Araneae) of Kenya". African Invertebrates. 62 (1): 47–229. doi:10.3897/AfrInvertebr.62.58776. S2CID 234148710.
- Logunov, Dmitri V. (2009). "Further notes on the Harmochireae of Africa (Araneae, Salticidae, Pelleninae)". ZooKeys (16): 265–290. doi:10.3897/zookeys.16.227.
- Maddison, Wayne P. (2015). "A phylogenetic classification of jumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae)". The Journal of Arachnology. 43 (3): 231–292. doi:10.1636/arac-43-03-231-292. S2CID 85680279.
- Maddison, Wayne P .; Hedin, Marshal C. (2003). "Jumping spider phylogeny (Araneae: Salticidae)". Invertebrate Systematics. 17 (4): 529–549. doi:10.1071/IS02044.
- Patoleta, Barbara; Żabka, Marek (2020). "New species of Langona Simon, 1901 and Neaetha Simon, 1884 (Araneae: Salticidae) from Thailand". Zootaxa. 4899 (1): 374–383. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4899.1.19. PMID 33756841. S2CID 232338802.
- Platnick, Norman I. (1997). Advances in Spider Taxonomy, 1992-1995: With Redescriptions, 1940-1980. New York: New York Entomological Society in association with the American Museum of Natural History. ISBN 978-0-91342-410-0.
- Prószyński, Jerzy (2017). "Pragmatic Classification of the World's Salticidae (Araneae)". Ecologica Montenegrina. 12: 1–133. doi:10.37828/em.2017.12.1.
- Simon, Eugène (1886). "Etudes arachnologiques. 18e Mémoire. XXVI. Matériaux pour servir à la faune des Arachnides du Sénégal. (Suivi d'une appendice intitulé: Descriptions de plusieurs espèces africaines nouvelles)" [Arachnological studies. 18th Memory. XXVI. Materials to be used for the fauna of the Arachnids of Senegal. (Followed by an appendix entitled: Descriptions of several new African species)]. Annales de la Société Entomologique de France (in Latin). 6 (5: 345–396).
- Wesołowska, Wanda; Haddad, Charles R. (2018). "Further additions to the jumping spider fauna of South Africa (Araneae: Salticidae)". Annales Zoologici. 68 (4): 879–908. doi:10.3161/00034541ANZ2018.68.4.011. S2CID 86626109.