Pseudicius squamatus

Pseudicius squamatus is a species of jumping spider in the genus Pseudicius that lives in South Africa. The spider was first defined in 2013 by Charles Haddad and Wanda Wesołowska. The spider is small, with a cephalothorax that is between 1.4 and 1.7 mm long and an abdomen that measures between 1.2 and 1.8 mm long. It has a dark brown carapace that has three narrow white stripes of hairs running down it and a pattern of a streak that terminates in a series of chevrons on the abdomen. It is the copulatory organs that most enable the spider to be distinguished. The female has a characteristic triangular depression in its epigyne. The male has a series of black scales on the side of the cymbium near to the tip of its embolus. The species is named in recognition of those scales.

Taxonomy
Pseudicius squamatus is a jumping spider that was first described by Charles Haddad and Wanda Wesołowska in 2013. They allocated the species to the genus Pseudicius, first raised by Eugène Simon in 1885. The genus name is related to two Greek words that can be translated false and honest. The genus was provisionally placed alongside Icius that, despite looking superficially similar, has a different etymology. The two genera were placed in the tribe Heliophaninae alongside Afraflacilla and Marchena. 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 allocated the genus to the Pseudiciines group of genera, which was named after the genus. Marchena is a member of the group, while Icius is not, as they are now defined as very different genera. The spiders have flattened and elongated body and characteristic colour patterns. The species name is based on a Latin word that refers to the scale-like hairs on the male palpal bulb.

Description
Pseudicius squamatus is a small spider with a slender flattened body. The male has a cephalothorax that is between 1.4 and 1.7 mm long and 1.0 and 1.2 mm wide. It has a flat oval, dark brown carapace with three narrow stripes of white hairs that run from the front to back. It has a black eye field with long brown bristles and a low clypeus with a covering of whie hairs. The chelicerae, labium and sternum are dark brown. The abdomen is between 1.2 and 1.8 mm long and 1.3 and 1.4 mm wide. It is dark, brownish-grey and has a pattern of a streak down the middle which divides towards the rear into a series of chevrons, looking not dissimilar to the tributaries of a river delta. The sides are black and the underside grey marked with four lines of white dots. The spinnerets are dark grey. The legs are generally yellow apart from the brown forelegs, which are also stouter. The pedipalps are brown. The spider has a small flat tibial apophysis. It is most easily identified by the presence of black scales on the side of the cymbium near to the tip of the long whip-like embolus.

The female is similar in size to the male, with a carapace typically measuring 1.5 mm long and 1.1 mm wide and an abdomen that is typically 2.2 mm long and 1.4 mm wide. It is lighter in colour than the male and has a more distinguishable reddish tinge to the carapace. The carapace is also covered in whitish-grey hairs and there are brown bristles near the eyes. There is also more brown in the colour of the legs. Otherwise, it is very similar. The copulatory organs help to distinguish the species from others in the genus. The epigyne is a distinictive shape dominated by a large triangular depression. Internally, the seminal ducts are quite wide and loop round to bean-shaped spermathecae.

Distribution and habitat
Pseudicius spiders can be found across Afro-Eurasia and the Eastern hemisphere. Pseudicius squamatus is endemic to South Africa. The holotype was found in iSimangaliso Wetland Park in KwaZulu-Natal in 2012. Other examples have also been found in the area.