Afraflacilla altera

Afraflacilla altera is a species of jumping spider in the genus Afraflacilla that lives in South Africa and Zimbabwe. The spider was first described in 2000 by Wanda Wesołowska and originally allocated to the genus Pseudicius. It was moved to its current name by Jerzy Prószyński in 2016. The spider is small, with an elongated carapace and abdomen that are between 1.6 and 1,7 mm and between 2.1 and 2.6 mm long respectively. The male and female are similar in size and shape, although the female is generally lighter. They have a similar pattern of three white dots on each side of the brown abdomen. The spider is superficially almost indistinguishable from other species in the genus, particularly Afraflacilla karinae and Afraflacilla venustula. It can be best differentiated by its copulatory organs, particularly the shape of the male tibial apophyses, or appendages, and the arrangement of pouches and openings on the female epigyne.

Taxonomy
Afraflacilla altera is a jumping spider that was first described by Wanda Wesołowska in 2000. It is one of over 500 species identified by Wesołowska during her career, one gf the highest amongst scientists in the field. She originally allocated the species to the genus Pseudicius, first circumscribed by Eugène Simon in 1885. The genus name is related to two Greek words that can be translated false and honest. The genus is a member of the tribe Heliophaninae, which is ubiquitous across most continents of the world. Wayne Maddison renamed the tribe Chrysillini in 2015. The tribe is a member of the clade Saltafresia within the subfamily Salticoida.

A year later, in 2016, Jerzy Prószyński moved the species to the genus Afraflacilla on the basis of the shape of the copulatory organs. It was one of more than 40 species that were transferred between the two genera at the time. Afraflacilla had been circumscribed by Lucien Betland and Jacques Millot in 1941. It is also a member of the tribe Chrysillini. Prószyński allocated the genus to the Pseudiciines group of genera in 2017, which was named after the genus Pseudicius. They can be distinguished from other jumping spiders by their flattened and elongated body and characteristic colour patterns. The species is named after a Latin word that can be translated another.

Description
Afraflacilla altera is a small spider with a slender elongated shape. The female has a carapace that is typically 1.6 mm long and 1.1 mm wide. Elongated and flattened, it is dark brown with a covering of thin brownish-grey hairs. The eye field is black with a few long bristles around the eyes themselves. The spider has darker brown chelicerae and sternum and a lighter brown labium. The abdomen is typically 2.1 mm long and 1.3 mm wide. It is elongated and has a brown topside covered with short hairs and a pattern of six white spots, three on each side. The spinnerets are dark. The legs are brown and have a sparse covering of long, thin brown leg hairs. The front legs are much longer, stouter and darker compared to the others. It has a rounded epigyne that is heavily sclerotized. It has two pockets and two round copulatory openings that lead to coiled insemination ducts, long accessory glands and long spermathecae.

The male is very similar to the female. The carapace and abdomen are about the same size, measuring. typically 1.7 mm long and 1.2 mm wide and 2.6 mm long and 1.4 mm wide respectively. It looks superficially similar to the female, but with an almost indistinguishable pattern, but is a little darker. The pedipalps are pear-shaped. The spider has a short tibia with two apophyses, or appendages, the lower one shorter than the other. The spider has a bulbous palpal bulb with a large lump at the bottom and a long thin embolus.

The species is similar to others in the genus, many of which were also previously allocated to the genus Pseudicius. The male is particularly closely related to Afraflacilla karinae, from which it is hard to distinguish without a close look at its copulatory organs. The species is evidentially related to Afraflacilla venustula, the male being distinguished by the presence of two, rather than three, tibial apophyses, and the female by the way that the pouches on the epigyne are near the gonopores rather than the central furrow. The male is also similar to Afraflacilla arabica, differing in the more bulbous design of the tibial appendages. The male can be differentiated from Afraflacilla elegans by its two tibial apophyses. The female is very similar to Afraflacilla histrionica, differing in the location of the pockets in the epigyne.

Distribution and habitat
Afraflacilla altera lives in South Africa and Zimbabwe. The holotype was found near the Shashe River in Zimbabwe in 1990 alongside other examples. The first example to be found in South Africa was collected on the shore of the Shokwe Pan in Ndumo Game Reserve in 2000. It is a relatively rare species, particularly compared to the more common Afraflacilla venustula. The spider thrives in trees like Ficus sycomorus.