Tusitala proxima
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| Tusitala proxima | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae |
| Infraorder: | Araneomorphae |
| Family: | Salticidae |
| Genus: | Tusitala |
| Species: | T. proxima |
| Binomial name | |
| Tusitala proxima Wesołowska & Russell-Smith, 2000 | |
Tusitala proxima is a species of jumping spider that lives in Tanzania. A member of the genus Tusitala, its name is a Latin word that means “consecutive”. Typically 5 mm (0.20 in) long, the spider is hard to distinguish from the related Tusitala barbata. It has a darker carapace, the hard upper part of its front section, and, behind that, a more swollen abdomen. It can be most easily distinguished by its copulatory organs. First described in 2000, the female has long insemination ducts that follow a closer and wider set of coils. It also has smaller receptacles, or spermathecae and larger accessory glands. The male has not been identified.
Tusitala proxima is a species of jumping spider, a member of the family Salticidae, that was first described by the arachnologists Wanda Wesołowska and Anthony Russell-Smith in 2000.[1][2] It was one of over 500 species that Wesołowska identified during her career.[3] The holotype is stored at the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren.[4] It is named for a Latin word that means “consecutive”.[5]
They allocated it to the genus Tusitala, first circumscribed by George and Elizabeth Peckham in 1902. In Wayne Maddison's 2015 study of spider phylogenetic classification, the genus Tusitala was listed in the tribe Salticini.[6] This is a member of the clade Saltafresia. Maddison placed this tribe in the subclade Simonida.[7] Jerzy Prószyński placed the genus in an informal group called Hyllines in 2017.[8]