Aelurillus galinae
Aelurillus galinae is a species of jumping spider in the genus Aelurillus that is endemic to the United Arab Emirates. It was first described in 2010 by Wanda Wesołowska and Antonius van Harten. The species is small with a forward section, or cephalothorax, that is between long and, behind that, an abdomen that is between long. The female is larger than the male. The female has a spherical abdomen that has a grey and fawn pattern. The male abdomen has a wide brown stripe across the middle and is otherwise yellow. The carapace, the upper section of the cephalothorax, of both similar. The species is distinguished from others in the genus by the way that the front set of eyes extend beyond the front of the carapace and the way that the appendage on the male palpal bulb, part of the spider's copulatory organs have blended.
Taxonomy and etymology
Aelurillus galinae is a jumping spider, a member of the family Salticidae, that was first described by the arachnologists Wanda Wesołowska and Antonius van Harten in 2010. It is one of over 500 species identified by the Polish arachnologist Wesolowska. It was placed in the genus Aelurillus that was first described by the French naturalist Eugène Simon in 1885. The genus name derives from the Greek word for cat. The species is named after the arachnologist Galina Azarkina.The spider was placed in the subtribe Aelurillina in the tribe Aelurillini, both named after the genus, by Canadian biologist Wayne Maddison in 2015. These were allocated to the clade Saltafresia. IIn 2017, Polish arachnologist Jerzy Prószyński grouped the genus with nine other genera of jumping spiders under the name Aelurillines. It is closely related to the genus Manzuma and Rafalus, particularly in the shape of its body and the composition of its copulatory organs.
Description
Aelurillus galinae is a small spider. The male has a cephalothorax that is between in length and in width. It has a brown carapace, the hard upper surface of its cephalothorax, with a short black eye field. There is a pattern of four thin lines formed of white hairs on the eye field that merge into two wider stripes on the thorax. The carapace has a distinctive shape, particularly at the front, with the front set of eyes extending beyond the body, particularly the central eyes. Its sternum, or underside of the cephalothorax, is light brown, The part of its face knowns as its clypeus is brown with light hair. Its chelicerae light brown with dark hairs, its maxillae are darker and have yellow tips, while the remaining mouthparts, including, its labium, are simply light brown.Situated behind its cephalothorax, the male's yellow abdomen is between long and wide. It has a wide brown stripe across the middle of its upper surface although its underside is plain and lighter. The spider's spinnerets are greyish. Its legs are yellow and hairy; they have long spines. Its pedipalps are also light in colour, which is accentuated by them being covered in white hairs. The spider's copulatory organs are distinctive. The spider's pedipalp terminates with a tibia that has two spikes, known as its tibial apophysis. One is blunter than the other. At the end of the tibia is a smooth cymbium. The spider's palpal bulb has an almost triangular shape with a distinctive blended appendage that extends from the middle. At the summit of the bulb is a small slightly curved embolus that fits in a small valley in the spider's cymbium.
The female is slightly larger than the male, with a cephalothorax that is long and wide and an abdomen long and wide. The colouring of the carapace is similar, although the lines are less clear, but the distinctive position of the eyes is the same. The abdomen is very different, being spherical and swollen in shape and patterned with fawn and greyish patches. The legs are spotted brown, but otherwise also similar. The epigyne, the external visible part of the female's copulatory organs, is typical for the genus. It has a pocket and wings lining the copulatory openings. Internally, the two openings lead to relatively short insemination ducts and rounded spermathecae, or receptacles. The spider also has rounded accessory glands.
The spider can be distinguished from others in the genus by the shape of its head, in particular the front edge and the way that its foremost eyes are set back. A closer inspection of its copulatory organs, and particularly the male's blended apophysis, can also confirm its identity. The female is harder to identify, but the presence of long bowl-like features at the entrance to its seminal ducts and the simple structure of its spermathecae.