Asemonea amatola

Asemonea amatola is a species of jumping spider in the genus Asemonea that is endemic to South Africa. It lives in trees in mountain ranges. The spider was first defined in 2013 by Wanda Wesołowska and Charles Haddad. The spider is small, with a white or whitish-yellow pear-shaped carapace between 2.0 and 2.6 mm long and an abdomen between 2.4 and 2.8 mm long that has a pattern of dark dots on an otherwise light surface. The copulatory organs are distinctive. The female has spines on its pedipalps and a large epigyne with two large shallow depressions. The male is larger than the female and has a distinctive pedipalp with a three-armed apophysis on the femur and three apophyses on the tibia.

Taxonomy
Asemonea amatola is a jumping spider that was first described by Wanda Wesołowska and Charles Haddad in 2013. It is one of over 500 species the Polish arachnologist identified during her career. The species was allocated to the genus Asemonea, first raised by Octavius Pickard-Cambridge in 1869. The genus is related to Lyssomanes. Molecular analysis demonstrates that the genus is similar to Goleba and Pandisus. In Wayne Maddison's 2015 study of spider phylogenetic classification, the genus Asemonea was the type genus for the subfamily Asemoneinae. A year later, in 2016, Jerzy Prószyński named it as the type genus for the Asemoneines group of genera, which was also named after the genus.

Description
The spider is small. The female has a cephalothorax that is typically 2.0 mm long and 1.6 mm wide. It has a pear-shaped white carapace, apart from two faint darker bands and black rings around the eyes. Light hairs cover the entire body. The chelicerae has three small teeth visible at the front and four at the back. The mouthparts are white. The abdomen is typically 2.4 mm long and 1.5 mm wide. It is similarly pale both on top and underneath, with indistinct dark steaks across the back. It has a pattern of five small dark spots towards the back. The spinnerets are white, as are the thin legs. The pedipalps has six spines. The epigyne is large and broad, with two large but shallow depressions. The copulatory openings are combined.

The male is larger than the female, with a cephalothorax measuring 2.6 mm long and 2.0 mm wide and an abdomen 2.8 mm long and 1.2 mm wide. The carapace is low, pear-shaped and whitish-yellow, with two light brown streaks crossing the back. The eyes have black rings like the female and are arranged in four rows. Occasional orange hairs can be seen on the eye field and brown clypeus. The chelicerae has white hairs at their bases. The abdomen is narrow and white with a similar pattern of dots to the female. The white spinnerets have dark tips. The legs are similarly white but have brownish rings on them. The pedipalp is light and has a femoral apophysis consisting of three appendages, three apophyses on the tibia, sharp curved prolateral and dorsal apophyses, and a rounded retrolateral apophysis. The embolus is short and curves around the end of the tegulum. The shape of the pedipalp, particularly the three-armed femoral apophysis, is distinctive for the species.

Behaviour
Asemonea spiders rarely jump. Instead, they generally walk and run. They spin sheet webs on the underside of leaves, where they also lay their eggs. Despite being predominantly a diurnal hunter, the spider is also likely to eat nectar if it is available. Although the species has been found in the autumn, it is more abundant in spring.

Distribution and habitat
The species is endemic to South Africa. The female holotype was found in the Amatola Mountains of Eastern Cape in 2010 living in the canopy of broadleaf trees in a domestic garden. The male was first identified in the same locality in 2013, at an altitude of 1250 m above sea level. The species is named from the mountain range where it was first found. It thrives in mountainous areas.