Evarcha striolata Wesołowska & Haddad, 2009

Wesołowska, Wanda & Haddad, Charles R., 2013, New data on the jumping spiders of South Africa (Araneae: Salticidae), African Invertebrates 54 (1), pp. 177-177 : 197-198

Evarcha striolata Wesołowska & Haddad, 2009

Figs 10, 17, 65, 66

Evarcha striolata: Wesołowska & Haddad 2009: 33 , figs 47–49, 213, 214.

Wesołowska & Haddad (2009) described the male.

Description:

Female.

Measurements. Cephalothorax: length 2.5–2.6, width 1.9–2.0, height 1.1–1.2.Abdomen: length 2.4–2.5, width 1.4–1.5. Eye field: length 1.0–1.1, anterior width 1.5–1.6, posterior width 1.7–1.8.

General appearance as in Fig. 10. Carapace high, convex ( Fig. 17), yellowish orange; eye field yellow; eyes with black rings; small white scales close to anterior median eyes; carapace with scattered brown hairs, with few bristles anteriorly on eye field. Clypeus moderately high, clothed in colourless hairs. Mouthparts and sternum dark yellow. Abdomen smaller than carapace, ovoid, tapering posteriorly; dorsum yellowish white, with ill-defined traces of two longitudinal streaks composed of small beige dots ( Fig. 10). Venter whitish with two lines of beige dots. Spinnerets white. Legs orange, with brown spines and hairs. Epigyne with two widely separated rounded grooves and very wide pocket at epigastric fold ( Fig. 65). Seminal ducts weakly sclerotized, very broad, forming a loop; spermathecae with a few chambers ( Fig. 66).

Material examined: SOUTH AFRICA: KwaZulu­Natal: 1♂ Ndumo Game Reserve , southern boundary fence, 26°53.204'S 32°10.641'E, Acacia tortilis savanna, grass litter, 4.vii.2009, C. Haddad, R. Lyle & V. Butler ( TMSA, 23530); 1 imm. 2♀ same data but 10.xii.2009, C. Haddad ( NMBA) ; 1 imm. 1♂ same locality, Matandeni road, 26°53.252'S 32°11.516'E, base of grass tussocks, 7.viii.2009, C. Haddad, R. Lyle & V. Butler ( TMSA, 23569) .

Distribution: Known only from the type locality (Ndumo Game Reserve, Fig. 67).

Habitat and biology: Most of the known specimens were collected from the base of grass tussocks or grassy litter in Acacia tortilis savanna.

Remarks: The female, described here for the first time, is very similar to that of E. flagellaris Haddad & Wesołowska, 2011 , but is lighter in colour, with a more slender body and a clearly more convex carapace. The internal structure of the epigyne also similar, but the spermathecae are composed of fewer chambers than in E. flagellaris .