Mexcala monstrata
Mexcala monstrata | |
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The related species Mexcala elegans | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
Class: | Arachnida |
Order: | Araneae |
Infraorder: | Araneomorphae |
Family: | Salticidae |
Subfamily: | Salticinae |
Genus: | Mexcala |
Species: | M. monstrata
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Binomial name | |
Mexcala monstrata Wesołowska & van Harten, 1994
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Mexcala monstrata is a species of jumping spider in the genus Mexcala that lives in Egypt and Yemen. The spider was first defined in 1994 by Wanda Wesołowska and Anthony Van Harten. It mimics ants, living alongside and preying upon them. It is a medium-sized spider, with a dark brown carapace that range between 2.8 and 3.6 mm (0.11 and 0.14 in) long and an orange abdomen between 3.0 and 5.8 mm (0.12 and 0.23 in) long. The female is larger than the male. Juveniles have also been found that have a carapace that measures between 2.46 and 2.82 mm (0.097 and 0.111 in) in length and an abdomen that is between 2.13 and 2.4 mm (0.084 and 0.094 in) in length. The abdomen in all cases has a dark stripe across the middle, although the male's is thinner. The spider is similar to the related Mexcala agilis and Mexcala elegans, but can be distinguished by the wider tibial apophysis on the male palpal bulb and the presence of two heavily sclerotised shallow depressions in the female epigyne.
Taxonomy
Mexcala monstrata is a
Description
Like all Mexcala spiders, the species is slender and medium-sized.
The female is generally similar but larger than the male. Ii has a carapace that is typically between 2.9 and 3.6 mm (0.11 and 0.14 in) long and between 2.1 and 2.5 mm (0.083 and 0.098 in) wide, and an abdomen that is between 3.9 and 5.8 mm (0.15 and 0.23 in) long and 2.6 and 3.7 mm (0.10 and 0.15 in) wide.[9][11] The carapace is similar to the male but is often darker. The chelicerae are dark brown with a fine saw-like edge and a single tooth to the front and a single tooth to the rear. The abdomen has a slightly different pattern, with a wider stripe that stretches towards the front of the orange area and dividing it into two large orange patches. The end of abdomen is black and the underside dark. The pedipalps are brownish-orange. The oval epigyne is heavily sclerotised and has two shallow depressions plugged with a waxy secretion and ridged with round grooves.[12][13] Two copulatory openings lead via relatively short but complicated seminal ducts to medium-sized receptacles.[14]
Juveniles are smaller than males, with a total length between 4.58 and 5.22 mm (0.180 and 0.206 in), a carapace that measures between 2.46 and 2.82 mm (0.097 and 0.111 in) long and 1.63 and 1.91 mm (0.064 and 0.075 in) wide and an abdomen that is between 2.13 and 2.4 mm (0.084 and 0.094 in) in length and 1.74 and 1.99 mm (0.069 and 0.078 in) in width. They are similar in shape and design to the adult.[15] The spider is similar to others in the genus. It is related to Mexcala elegans, but the male can be distinguished by its wider tibial apophysis.[13] The male can also be differentiated from Mexcala agilis by way its tibial apophysis has an abruptly pointed tip in comparison to the gently narrowing end of the other species. The visible round epigynal depressions are a distinguishing feature of the female.[14]
Behaviour
Like many jumping spiders, Wesołowska and Tamás Szűts noted that Mexcala spiders
Distribution
Mexcala spiders can be found across Africa and the Arabian peninsula.
References
Citations
- ^ a b World Spider Catalog (2017). "Mexcala monstrata Wesolowska & van Harten, 1994". World Spider Catalog. 18.0. Bern: Natural History Museum. Retrieved 21 July 2017.
- ^ Wiśniewski 2020, p. 6.
- ^ Wesołowska 2009, p. 149.
- ^ Maddison, Bodner & Needham 2008, p. 57.
- ^ a b Maddison 2015, p. 252.
- ^ Maddison 2015, p. 278.
- ^ Prószyński 2017, p. 29.
- ^ a b Wesołowska 2009, p. 152.
- ^ a b c d Wesołowska & van Harten 2007, p. 229.
- ^ Wesołowska 2009, p. 169.
- ^ a b Wesołowska & van Harten 1994, p. 49.
- ^ Wesołowska & van Harten 1994, p. 51.
- ^ a b Wesołowska 2009, p. 170.
- ^ a b Wesołowska & van Harten 1994, p. 52.
- ^ a b Metwally et al. 2019, p. 4.
- ^ Wesołowska & Szűts 2001, p. 523.
- ^ Pekár, Petráková Dušátková & Haddad 2020, p. 6.
- ^ Richman & Jackson 1992, p. 33.
- ^ Pekár, Petráková Dušátková & Haddad 2020, p. 5.
- ^ Richman & Jackson 1992, p. 34.
- ^ Wesołowska 2009, p. 153.
- ^ Wesołowska & van Harten 2007, p. 266.
Bibliography
- S2CID 85680279.
- Maddison, Wayne P.; Bodner, Melissa R.; Needham, Karen M. (2008). "Salticid spider phylogeny revisited, with the discovery of a large Australasian clade (Araneae: Salticidae)". Zootaxa. 1893: 49–64. .
- Metwally, Abdel-Sattar; Mohafez, Mohammad; El-Danasory, Mohamed; El-Gendy, Amr (2019). "First record of Mexcala monstrata (Araneae: Salticidae) from Egypt". Arachnologische Mitteilungen. 58: 4–5. .
- Pekár, Stano; Petráková Dušátková, Lenka; Haddad, Charles R. (2020). "No ontogenetic shift in the realised trophic niche but in Batesian mimicry in an ant-eating spider". Scientific Reports. 10 (1250). PMC 6985134.
- .
- Richman, David B.; Jackson, Robert R. (1992). "A review of the ethology of jumping spiders (Araneae, Salticidae)". Bulletin of the British Arachnology Society. 9 (2): 33–37.
- Wesołowska, Wanda (2009). "A revision of the spider genus Mexcala Peckham and Peckham, 1902 (Araneae: Salticidae)". Genus. 20 (1): 149–186.
- Wesołowska, Wanda; van Harten, Anthony (1994). The jumping spiders (Salticidae, Araneae) of Yemen. Sana'a: Yemeni-German Plant Protection Project.
- Wesołowska, Wanda; van Harten, Anthony (2007). "Additions to the knowledge of jumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae) of Yemen". Fauna of Arabia. 23: 189–269.
- Wesołowska, Wanda; Szűts, Tamás (2001). "A New Genus of Ant-Like Jumping Spiders from Africa (Araneae: Salticidae)". Annales Zoologici. 51 (4): 523–528.
- Wiśniewski, Konrad (2020). "Over 40 years with jumping spiders: on the 70th birthday of Wanda Wesołowska". Zootaxa. 4899 (1): 5–14. S2CID 232337200.