Pedipalps are the secondary pair of forward appendages among chelicerates – a group of arthropods including spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders. The pedipalps are lateral to the chelicerae ("jaws") and anterior to the first pair of walking legs.
The anatomy of spiders includes many characteristics shared with other arachnids. These characteristics include bodies divided into two tagmata, eight jointed legs, no wings or antennae, the presence of chelicerae and pedipalps, simple eyes, and an exoskeleton, which is periodically shed.
Psalmopoeus irminia, also known as the Venezuelan suntiger, is a species of tarantula endemic to Venezuela, Guyana and Brazil. They were first described in 1994 by F. Saager.
Progradungula otwayensis, commonly known as the Otway odd-clawed spider, is a species of cribellate spider endemic to the Great Otway National Park of Victoria, Australia. It is one of only three species in the gradungulid genus Progradungula.
The two palpal bulbs – also known as palpal organs and genital bulbs – are the copulatory organs of a male spider. They are borne on the last segment of the pedipalps, giving the spider an appearance often described as like wearing boxing gloves. The palpal bulb does not actually produce sperm, being used only to transfer it to the female. Palpal bulbs are only fully developed in adult male spiders and are not completely visible until after the final moult. In the majority of species of spider, the bulbs have complex shapes and are important in identification.
Langona pilosa is a species of jumping spider in the genus Langona that lives in Namibia. The male was first described by Wanda Wesołowska in 2006 and the female in 2011. The spider is small with a cephalothorax between 2.2 and 3.1 mm long and a abdomen between 2.1 and 3.5 mm. The female is larger than the male. The spider has a brown carapace that has two white stripes on its back, a large dark patch on its yellowish abdomen, a black eye field and the toothless chelicerae typical of the genus. The male can be distinguished from others in the genus by the existence of tufts around the palpal bulb, after which it is named, and the very long and thin tibial apophysis. The female has copulatory organs that resemble Langelurillus ignorabilis but differ in the design of the seminal ducts.
Pseudomogrus mirandus is a species of jumping spider in the genus Pseudomogrus. It has been found in Turkmenistan on the steppe, although it may also live in Afghanistan and Iran. The species was first defined by Wanda Wesołowska in 1991, one of over 500 described by the arachnologist. She originally placed it in the genus Yllenus, but was moved to the new genus Logunyllus in 2016, and then to its present designation in 2019. The spider is small, with a carapace measuring between 1.6 and 1.78 mm long and an abdomen between 1.4 and 2.3 mm long. The male has a red-brown or dark brown carapace and dark grey abdomen, the female a brown carapace and greyish-brown abdomen. All have a covering of small white scales. The spider has yellow legs. The copulatory organs are distinctive and enable the spider to be distinguished from others in the genus. The female epigyne has a half-moon-shaped pocket and simple insemination ducts that lead to spherical spermathecae. The male lacks the ventral tibial apophysis common in other species and has a compound terminal apophysis that is of a similar length to its thin embolus.
Nigorella aethiopica is the type species of the genus Nigorella. A jumping spider that lives in Ethiopia and named in honour of the country in which it is found, it was first described in 2008 by Wanda Wesołowska and Beata Tomasiewicz. The spider is larger than others in the species with a cephalothorax that is between 4.1 and 4.8 mm long and an abdomen that is between 4.3 and 5.6 mm long. The carapace is generally brown and hairy, although the male is darker. While the male abdomen is marked by a light stripe on the topside and dots underneath, the female abdomen has a pattern of a light stripe and patches on the top and dark stripes on the bottom. As well as its larger size, the species can be distinguished by its copulatory organs. The split at the end of the appendage on the pedipalp tibia marks out the male, and the female has longer seminal ducts and thinner spermathecae than others in the genus.
Thiratoscirtus elgonensis is a species of jumping spider in the genus Thiratoscirtus that lives in Nigeria. It has only been found on Mount Elgon, after which it named. The species was first described in 2016 by Angelika Dawidowicz and Wanda Wesołowska. It is a medium-sized spider, with a cephalothorax that is between 1.8 and 2.7 mm long and an abdomen that is between 2.0 and 2.8 mm in length, both oval in shape. It is generally brown with a central lighter streak running down both the carapace, the hard upper part of the cephalothorax, and the top of the abdomen until it ends in a series of chevrons. The area around its eyes is black and Its face, or clypeus, is light brown. The male has pedipalps that are similar to the related Thiratoscirtus efik' but differs in details, including the size of the spike on the palpal tibia known as the tibial apophysis. The female has a distinctive epigyne with a heart-shaped depression and wide insemination ducts.
Urogelides is a genus of jumping spiders containing one described species, Urogelides daviesae, and other undescribed species. It was first described by Marek Michał Żabka in 2009, and is found in Queensland, Australia.
Hasarinella distincta is a species of jumping spider in the genus Hasarinella that lives in South Africa. The species was first described in 2013 by Charles R. Haddad and Wanda Wesołowska. With a dark brown oval cephalothorax] that is between 3.4 and 3.8 mm long and a brown ovoid abdomen that has a length between 3.7 and 4.5 mm. The male has a marking of three white streaks, one in the middle and two along the edges, on the carapace. The female does not. It is the copulatory organs that enable the species to be differentiated from the related Hasarinella berlandi, particularly the wider seminal ducts in the female and the oval palpal bulb in the male. It lives in both grassland and woodland.
Afrobeata firma is a species of jumping spider in the genus Afrobeata that lives in Yemen. The species was first described in 1994 by Wanda Wesołowska and Antonius van Harten. The spider has a carapace measuring between 2.9 and 3.6 mm long and an abdomen between 2.9 and 4.2 mm long. It is generally dark brown, although the underside is lighter. The male has a pattern of chevrons and spots on its abdomen. The female has shiny scales. The male also has distinctively-shaped teeth to the rear of the chelicerae while the female has a single bicuspid tooth. The front legs of the male are longer than the rest. The female copulatory organs are similar to the related Afrobeata latithorax but the seminal ducts are distinctive. They are complex and coiled, surrounding the heavily sclerotized spermathecae. The male has a small tooth-like appendage on its palpal tibia, or tibial apophysis, and a very long thin embolus that circles the round palpal bulb.
Langelurillus quadrimaculatus is a species of jumping spider in the genus Langelurillus that lives in Nigeria. It was first described in 2011 by Wanda Wesołowska and Anthony Russell-Smith. The spider is small, with a cephalothorax that is between 1.7 and 2.5 mm long and an abdomen between 2.0 and 2.2 mm long. The female is larger than the male. It can be distinguished from other species in the genus by its abdominal pattern, which is recalled in the species name, that consists of two pairs of rounded yellow patches on a brownish-grey background. The female also has a distinctive internal layout of its seminal ducts within its short and wide epigyne.
Detalik is a genus of jumping spiders, consisting of four species. The genus was circumscribed in 2021 by Wanda Wesołowska, along with descriptions of the type species Detalik anthonyi and two other species. These were all found in Nigeria, although another species described in 2022 lives in Ivory Coast. Generally, the members of the genus are very small spiders, between 3.5 and 5 mm long. They have distinctive features in their mouthparts, including a short fang on their jaws, or chelicerae, along with a two small teeth to the front and a large tooth to the back. The upper part of their body, the carapace, is noticeable for its almost vertical sloping back and the front legs are characterised with very long spikes on the tibia and metatarsus. While each species has unique reproductive organs, there are some common features: males have a spike at the back of a structure used during mating while females have their reproductive openings hidden in a small indentation in the visible part of their copulatory organs, the epigyne.
Detalik anthonyi is the type species for the genus Detalik. It is a species of jumping spider that is endemic to Nigeria and was first described in 2021 by Wanda Wesołowska. A small spider like all those in the genus, it has a cephalothorax measuring between 1.7 and 2.2 mm long and an abdomen between 1.5 and 2.7 mm long. The cephalothorax has a brown top or carapace that has wide white stripes on its back and a yellow underside or sternum. The abdomen differs between the sexes. The female abdomen is brownish-grey with a lighter streak running down it while the male has a mosaic-like pattern of brown dots at the very rear. The spider has distinctive copulatory organs. The male has an irregular-shaped palpal bulb with characteristic spikes, or apophyses. One, that is attached to the bulb itself, is large and sickle-shaped; two others are much shorter. The female has copulatory openings to the sides of the epigyne that lead to particularly long insemination ducts.
Stenaelurillus wandae is a species of jumping spider in the genus Stenaelurillus that lives in India. It was first described in 2020 by Dmitri Logunov. The spider is medium-sized, with a carapace between 2.95 and 3.35 mm long and an abdomen between 2.8 and 3.5 mm long. The female is larger than the male. The colouration differs between them too, with the male having two white stripes on the carapace while the female has a pattern formed of brown and white scales. The chelicerae, clypeus, legs, pedipalps and spinnerets are generally yellow, although they may be yellow-brown on the male. The spider is distinguished from others in the area by the lack of a pocket in the epigyne of the female and the forked appendage, with different length tines, on the palpal bulb of the male.
Padilla wandae is a species of jumping spider in the genus Padilla that lives in Madagascar. The species was first described in 2020 by Galina Azarkina and Charles Haddad. It is a medium-sized spider, with a brown carapace that is between 1.55 and 1.75 mm long, and a yellow abdomen that has a length of between 1.9 and 2.55 mm. The female is larger than the male. Although generally they have similar overall colouring and a single stripe on the carapace of both sexes, the female has one stripe on the abdomen and the male has two. The male palpal bulb has a hump in the middle and a coiled embolus. The female has an epigyne atrium that is longer than it is wide. The spider is similar to the related Padilla cornuta, but differs in lacking the chelicerae horns of the other species.
Ranops wandae is a species of ant spider in the genus Ranops that lives in Namibia. First described in 2020 by Rudy Jocqué and Arnaud Henrard, the spider is small, measuring between 2.24 and 3.26 mm in length. The male is smaller thamn the female. The carapace is brown, bottle-shaped and has a mottled pattern only on the male. The abdomen is grey, oval and also lacks any pattern on either sex. Most of the remainder of the spider is brown. The most characteristic feature of the genus are the long legs, which can measure up to 9.15 mm (0.360 in) long in the case of the back legs of the female. The legs are also yellow. The male also has a distinctive large curved median apophysis and curved retrolateral tibial apophysis on the palpal bulb which helps identify this species against others in the genus.
Pancorius wesolowskae is a species of jumping spider in the genus Pancorius that lives in China. The species was first described in 2020 by Wei-Hang Wang and Cheng Wang. The spider is large, measuring between 6.3 and 7.93 mm in overall length. The carapace is dark brown and the opisthosoma dark grey with a pattern of light and dark. The female is larger than the male but otherwise very similar in colouration. The female spider is similar to Pancorius wangdicus but differs in have slit-shaped copulatory openings compared to the other species. The male has a blunter and shorter retrolateral tibial apophysis than the related Pancorius cadus.
Pochyta equatorialis is a species of jumping spider in the genus Pochyta that lives in Gabon and Uganda. A small spider, it has an oval cephalothorax that is between 1.9 and 2.3 mm long and an ovoid abdomen, between 1.9 and 2.4 mm long. The female is lighter than the male and has a smaller carapace. The female also has lighter spinnerets and legs. All the spiders have a darker eye field, which have a scattering bristles. The spider has distinctive copulatory organs, although the female is similar to the related Pochyta maddisoni. The male has a distinctive clump of long hairs on its palpal tibia, a blunt apophysis and an irregularly-shaped palpal bulb. The species was first described in 2021 by Wanda Wesołowska and Tamás Szűts and is named for its equatorial distribution.
