Aelurillus basseleti

Aelurillus basseleti
A spider of the genus Aelurillus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Infraorder: Araneomorphae
Family: Salticidae
Subfamily: Salticinae
Genus: Aelurillus
Species:
A. basseleti
Binomial name
Aelurillus basseleti
(Lucas, 1846)

Aelurillus basseleti is a species of jumping spider in the genus Aelurillus that has been found in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. Originally named Salticus basseleti, the spider was first identified in 1846 by Hippolyte Lucas, but the original male holotype has been lost. The female was first described in 2006. The spider is small and hard to distinguish from the related species Aelurillus luctuosus and Aelurillus monardi. The dark brown carapace is typically between 2.8 and 3.4 mm (0.11 and 0.13 in) long and the grey-yellow abdomen is between 2.3 and 4 mm (0.091 and 0.157 in) long, the female being larger than the male. The carapace has a single stripe down the middle. While the female is hard to distinguish compared to others in the genus, the male spider has distinctive white or tawny bands on the clypeus. The male has a curved embolus that is sufficiently varied between individual spiders that it is not sufficiently specific to identify the species.