Phintella kaptega

Species of spider

Phintella kaptega

The related male Phintella versicolor
Scientific classification
Domain:  | Eukaryota
Kingdom:  | Animalia
Phylum:  | Arthropoda
Subphylum:  | Chelicerata
Class:  | Arachnida
Order:  | Araneae
Infraorder:  | Araneomorphae
Family:  | Salticidae
Subfamily:  | Salticinae
Genus:  | Phintella
Species:  |

P. kaptega

Binomial name
Phintella kaptega

Dawidowicz & Wesołowska, 2016

Phintella kaptega is a species of jumping spider in the genus Phintella that lives in Kenya. The species is named after the area around the Kaptega river where it was first found. The spider was first described in 2016 by Angelika Dawidowicz and Wanda Wesołowska in 2016, and is distinguished by the large pockets in the female's epigyne. It is a small spider with a light brown carapace that has a dark line along its edge. The abdomen is between 1.95 and 2.2 mm (0.08 and 0.09 in) long and has light brown markings on a yellow background.

## Taxonomy

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Phintella kaptega was first described in 2016 by Angelika Dawidowicz and Wanda Wesołowska.[1] The species name is derived from the name of the area where it first found.[2] It is one of over 500 species identified by Wesołowska.[3] The genus Phintella was circumscribed in 1906 by Embrik Strand and W. Bösenberg. The genus name derives from the genus Phintia, which it resembles.[4] The genus Phintia was itself renamed Phintodes, which was subsequently absorbed into Tylogonus.[5] There are similarities between spiders within genus Phintella and those in Chira, Chrysilla, Euophrys, Icius, Jotus and Telamonia.[6] Genetic analysis confirms that it is related to the genera Helvetia and Menemerus.[7] It is a member of the tribe Heliophaninae, renamed Chrysillini by Wayne Maddison in 2015.[8] Chrysillines are monophyletic.[9] The tribe is ubiquitous across most of the continents of the world.[7] It is allocated to the subclade Saltafresia in the clade Salticoida.[9]

## Description

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The spider was initially described by Angelika Dawidowicz and Wanda Wesołowska in 2016 based on the collection of the Swedish arachnologist Åke Holm.[10] The spider has a very light brown carapace which has a dark line along its edges. The clypeus is similarly dark. The abdomen is generally oval in shape and yellow with a pattern of brown markings. The female is slightly smaller and lighter than the male. The male's abdomen is 2.2 mm (0.09 in) long, while the female's is 1.95 mm (0.08 in) long. The cephalothorax is smaller, measuring between 1.5 and 1.7 mm (0.06 and 0.07 in) in length. The species is similar to Phintella aequipes but differs in the design of its copulatory organs. The male has small, light brown pedipalps and a short spiky embolus. The female has very large pockets that occupy almost half of the epigyne, which is distinctive for the species.[2]

## Distribution

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Phintella kaptega was first identified from examples discovered on the slopes of Mount Elgon in Kenya near the Kaptega River.[2]

## References

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### Citations

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1. ^ World Spider Catalog (2017). "Phintella kaptega Dawidowicz & Wesolowska, 2016". World Spider Catalog. 18.0. Bern: Natural History Museum. Retrieved 22 May 2017.
2. ^ a b c Dawidowicz & Wesołowska 2016, p. 452.
3. ^ Wiśniewski 2020, p. 6.
4. ^ Bösenberg & Strand 1906, p. 333.
5. ^ Cameron & Wijesinghe 1993, p. 16.
6. ^ Prószyński 1983, p. 43.
7. ^ a b Maddison & Hedin 2003, p. 541.
8. ^ Maddison 2015, p. 231.
9. ^ a b Maddison 2015, p. 278.
10. ^ Dawidowicz & Wesołowska 2016, p. 437.

### Bibliography

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* Bösenberg, W.; Strand, Embrik (1906). "Japanische Spinnen" [Japanese Spiders]. Abhandlungen der Senckenbergischen Naturforschenden Gesellschaft. 30: 93–422.
* Cameron, H. D.; Wijesinghe, D. P. (1993). "Simon's Keys to the Salticid Groups". Peckhamia. 3 (1): 1–26.
* Dawidowicz, Angelika; Wesołowska, Wanda (2016). "Jumping Spiders (Araneae: Salticidae) of Kenya Collected by Åke Holm". Annales Zoologici. 66 (3): 437–466. doi:10.3161/00034541ANZ2016.66.3.010. S2CID 89556915. Retrieved 22 May 2017.
* Maddison, Wayne P.; Hedin, Marshal C. (2003). "Jumping spider phylogeny (Araneae: Salticidae)". Invertebrate Systematics. 17 (4): 529–549.
* Maddison, Wayne P. (2015). "A phylogenetic classification of jumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae)". The Journal of Arachnology. 43 (3): 231–292. doi:10.1636/arac-43-03-231-292. S2CID 85680279.
* Prószyński, Jerzy (1983). "Position of genus Phintella (Araneae: Salticidae)". Acta Arachnologica. 31 (2): 43–48.
* Wiśniewski, Konrad (2020). "Over 40 years with jumping spiders: on the 70th birthday of Wanda Wesołowska". Zootaxa. 4899 (1): 5–14. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4899.1.3.

Taxon identifiers

Phintella lucida|

* Wikidata: Q2225958
* Wikispecies: Phintella lucida
* CoL: 76YNJ
* EoL: 21706206
* GBIF: 2174111
* iNaturalist: 809727
* ITIS: 886894
* Open Tree of Life: 6170664
* WSC: urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:041762