Plexippus fuscus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Plexippus fuscus | |
|---|---|
 | |
| A female of the related species Plexippus paykulli | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae |
| Infraorder: | Araneomorphae |
| Family: | Salticidae |
| 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.
Plexippus fuscus is a jumping spider that was first described by Christine Rollard and Wanda Wesołowska in 2002.[1] It was placed in the genus Plexippus, first raised by Carl Ludwig Koch in 1846.[2] The word plexippus is Greek and can be translated striking or driving horses. It was the name of a number of heroes in Homer's Iliad.[3] The species name is derived from a Latin word that can be translated dark, recalling the generally dark colours on the spider.[4] The genus was placed in the subtribe Plexippina in the tribe Plexippini, both named after the genus, by Wayne Maddison in 2015, who listed the tribe in the 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]