Thyene semiargentea ( Simon, 1884 )

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 : 89

Thyene semiargentea ( Simon, 1884)

Figs 235, 236

Mithion semiargenteus: Simon 1884: 5 , pl. 1, fig. 2.

Thyene semiargentea: Prószyński 1987: 111 ; Wesolowska & Russell-Smith 2000: 108, figs 300–306.

See Wesolowska & Russell-Smith (2000) for description of both sexes. General appearance of both sexes in Figs 235, 236.

Material examined: 1^Crocodile Farm, 26 ° 54.426'S: 32 ° 19.185'E, broadleaf woodland, beats, short bushes, 8.xii.2000 ( NMBA 11602 ) ; 1^Near Fontana Camp, 26 ° 52.072'S: 32 ° 09.545'E, A. tortilis savannah, leaf litter, 8.vii.2004 ( NMSA 21886 ) ; 1ơ Southern boundary fence, 26 ° 55.578'S: 32 ° 19.081'E, deep sand forest, under tree bark, 11.i.2007 ( NCA 2007 /3036) ; 1ơ 1^26 ° 52.464'S: 32 ° 16.050'E, subtropical bush, A. nigrescens woodland, beats, foliage, 8.xii.2000 ( NCA 2008 /2760) .

Distribution: Recorded from Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania; recorded for the first time from South Africa.

Habitat and biology: This species was collected from grasses in AS, and occasionally from foliage of short shrubs in BW, SF and ST.

Remarks: The individuals differ slightly from the type specimens of Th. semiargentea illustrated by Prószyński (1987), and are conspecific with Tanzanian specimens ( Wesolowska & Russell-Smith 2000, figs 300–306). They are very similar to the type of Modunda aperta Peckham & Peckham, 1903 (one male and one subadult male syntypes from Zimbabwe, Mashonaland, Gazaland, deposited in Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts), but the male has a shorter palpal tibial apophysis, differently located tegular process and different shape of tibia of first leg (slightly swollen in M. aperta ). Members of Thyene are very difficult to recognize, and the genus needs to be revised.