Schenkelia modesta Lessert, 1927

Wesolowska, Wanda & Haddad, Charles R., 2009, Jumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae) of the Ndumo Game Reserve, Maputaland, South Africa, African Invertebrates 50 (1), pp. 13-103 : 80-81

Schenkelia modesta Lessert, 1927

Figs 170–175

Schenkelia modesta: Lessert 1927: 466 , figs 36, 37; Prószyński 1968: 217, figs 1–9; Wesolowska & Russell-Smith 2000: 94, figs 256–260.

Redescription:

Measurements (male/female): Carapace length 2.9–3.3/3.1, width 2.1–2.4/2.3, height 1.1–1.2/1.1. Abdomen length 3.0–3.4/3.5, width 1.7–2.2/2.4. Eye field length 1.3–1.5/ 1.3, anterior width 1.7–1.8/1.7, posterior width 1.6–1.7/1.6.

Male.

General appearance shown in Fig. 170. Carapace oval, medium high, dark brown to blackish, eyes with black rings; long brown bristles in vicinity of anterior eyes; white hairs form light median band on thoracic part of carapace and frame lateral carapace margins posteriorly; fovea visible; clypeus brown. Chelicerae fissidentate; labium dark brown, endites brown with pale inner margins; sternum light brown.Abdomen narrower than carapace, oval, dark brown laterally and yellowish medially ( Fig. 170), clothed with short brown hairs, long brown bristles scattered among them; venter yellow with wide greyish band occupying medium part; spinnerets pale. Legs yellow, segments darker distally; leg hairs brown, except whitish on femora; spines long. Pedipalps dark yellow, tegulum with posterior lobe, embolus short, tibial apophysis very thin ( Figs 171, 172); tibia with large process dorsally ( Fig. 173).

Female.

Similar to male, but slightly lighter in colour. Epigyne rounded with two shallow cavities ( Fig. 174), seminal ducts very short, receptacles spherical, their walls thick ( Fig. 175).

Material examined: 1ơ Main Camp, 26 ° 54.581'S: 32 ° 18.798'E, broadleaf woodland, beats, short bushes, 6.vii.2000 ( NMBA 11598 ) ; 1ơ Southern boundary fence, 26 ° 55.578'S: 32 ° 19.081'E, deep sand forest, Commiophora harveyi bark, 13.vi.2005 ( NMSA 21876 ) ; 1ơ 1^Western shore of Shokwe Pan, 26 ° 52.013'S: 32 ° 12.982'E, F. sycomorus forest, beats, short shrubs, 1.xii.2000 ( NCA 2008 /2754) .

Distribution: Probably widely distributed in the Afrotropical Region; known from Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast and Tanzania. The species is recorded from South Africa for the first time.

Habitat and biology: This species was generally rare; specimens were collected by beating foliage in BW, FF and SF.