Manzuma nigritibiis

Manzuma nigritibiis
Male and female specimen from Ethiopia and Yemen
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Infraorder: Araneomorphae
Family: Salticidae
Genus: Manzuma
Species:
M. nigritibiis
Binomial name
Manzuma nigritibiis
Synonyms
List
  • Saitis nigritibiis Caporiacco, 1941
  • Aelurillus nigritibiis Prószyński, 1987
  • Aelurillus reconditus Wesołowska & van Harten, 1994
  • Rafalus nigritibiis Prószyński, 1999
  • Rafalus lymphus Wesołowska & van Harten, 2007
  • Manzuma nigritibia Azarkina, 2020

Manzuma nigritibiis is a jumping spider that has been found in Ethiopia and Yemen. The spider lives near water, including the Awash River in Ethiopia and wadis of Yemen. It does not use its webs to catch insects but rather hunts by stalking and chasing, using its good eyesight to spot prey. It is a small spider, typically 3.3 mm (0.13 in) in length. The top of the forward section of the spider, or carapace, is brown and, on the male, is marked by two stripes of white scales. On the underside of the spider, the male has a light brown sternum, while the female's is brownish-yellow. Both have a dark brown eye field. It has a brown abdomen behind its carapace that is marked with a single stripe on male specimen. Its legs are yellow.

The spider is hard to tell apart from others in the genus. The female is particularly difficult to distinguish. The identifying feature for both sexes is the part of its face known as its clypeus, which is covered in long white-yellow hair and has a diamond-shaped brown patch in the middle. The spider was first described in 1941 with the name Saltis nigritibiis and was moved to the genera Aelurillus and Rafalus before being allocated as the type species for the genus Manzuma, serving as the defining species for the genus, in 2020.