Plexippus fuscus

Plexippus fuscus
	A female of the related species Plexippus paykulli
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Infraorder:	Araneomorphae
Family:	Salticidae
Subfamily:	Salticinae
Genus:	Plexippus
Species:	P. fuscus
Binomial name
	Plexippus fuscus; Rollard & Wesołowska, 2002

Plexippus fuscus is a species of jumping spider in the genus Plexippus that lives in Guinea. It was first described in 2002 by Christine Rollard and Wanda Wesołowska. Only the female has been described. It is a medium-sized spider, with a dark brown carapace typically 3.4 mm (0.13 in) long and a reddish-brown abdomen that is 2.3 mm (0.091 in) long. Both the carapace and abdomen are covered in dark brown hairs. The abdomen has a yellow marking like a belt. Although superficially similar to other species in the genus like Plexippus paykulli, it can be distinguished by the presence of a long thin pocket in the epigyne and significant sclerotisation on the edges of the copulatory openings, which are also wider than other Plexippus spiders.

Taxonomy

Plexippus fuscus is a

clade Saltafresia.^[5] It was allocated to the subclade Simonida, named in honour of the French arachnologist Eugène Simon.^[6] In 2016, it was combined with 31 other genera into the group Christillines, named after the genus Chrysilla.^[7] In his 2017 study of the genus, Jerzy Prószyński placed it within the 20 species that were recognisable as unique.^[8]

Description

Plexippus fuscus is a medium-sized spider, with a

labium is also brown. The elongated abdomen is a more red-brown, also with dense brown hairs, but has a yellow belt-like marking. The underside is greyish-yellow. The spinnerets are yellow. The spider has hairy legs, the front ones being brown but the rest predominantly orange. The spider has a large and elongated epigyne with a central pocket and two very narrow gonopores. The is highly sclerotised, as are the wide entrances to the seminal ducts.^[9] This particularly long and thin pocket, its location in the middle of the epigyne, and the wide sclerotised edges of copulatory openings help the distinguish the species from others in the genus, like Plexippus paykulli, as superficially it is very similar.^[10] Only the female has been described.^[1]

Distribution and habitat

The female holotype was collected in Mount LeClerc in the Guinea Highlands in 1991, at an altitude of 1,250 m (4,100 ft) above sea level. The species is ground-dwelling and has been found living in low vegetation.^[4]