Phintella paludosa

Phintella paludosa
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. paludosa
Binomial name
Phintella paludosa Wesołowska & Edwards, 2012

Phintella paludosa is a species of jumping spider in the genus Phintella that lives in Africa. It was first described in 2012 by Wanda Wesołowska and G. B. Edwards, from a holotype discovered in Cross River State, Nigeria, and was subsequently also found in Ivory Coast. The species was first seen in a swamp, so the species name is derived from the Latin for marshy. The spider is small, with a brown carapace and almost black abdomen. The female is smaller than the male. It is similar to the related Phintella aequipes but can be distinguished by the thick short embolus in the male of the species and the very small epigyne with copulatory openings at the rear in the female.

Phintella paludosa is a jumping spider that was first identified by Wanda Wesołowska and G. B. Edwards in 2012.^[1] It is one of over 500 species identified by Wesołowska during her career.^[2] The spider's specific name is derived from the Latin word for marshy, and refers to the marshy ground where it was first discovered.^[3] It was placed in the genus Phintella, first raised in 1906 by Embrik Strand and W. Bösenberg. The generic 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 and is classified in the tribe Chrysillini.^[7][8]

The spider was initially described based on a holotype specimen found by Jonathan Reid between 1978 and 1984.^[9] The species is similar to the related Phintella aequipes in size and colour, that is found throughout Africa, but differs in the structure of the copulatory organs.^[10][11] The spider is small, with a brown oval carapace covered in short hairs, a brown clypeus and very dark brown, nearly black, oval abdomen. The male is slightly larger than the female. The female has an abdomen and cephalothorax that are each 1.6 mm (0.063 in) long. The male's abdomen is 2.2 mm (0.087 in) long, while the cephalothorax is 2.3 mm (0.091 in) in length.^[3] The male has a thick short embolus while the female has a copulatory openings at the very rear of a very small epigyne.^[9]

Phintella paludosa was first found in the Cross Rivers State in Nigeria, at the edge of a swamp.^[3] In 2022, when Wesołowska and Anthony Russell-Smith were undertaking an assessment of a large collection of spiders brought by Jean-Claude Ledoux from Ivory Coast to France between August 1974 and January 1976, they discovered another example that originated in the Lamto Scientific Reserve in Ivory Coast.^[12] It is now recognised as having a species distribution that includes both countries.^[1]