Evarcha maculata

Evarcha maculata is a small, light-coloured spider with looks that are typical for the genus. The spider's body is divided into two main parts: an ovoid cephalothorax and an oval abdomen. The male has a cephalothorax that is between 1.7 and 2.1 mm (0.07 and 0.08 in) long and 1.4 and 1.5 mm (0.06 and 0.06 in) wide. The carapace, the hard upper part of the cephalothorax, is yellowish and marked with grey lines along its edges and an indistinct brown stripy pattern on the top. It has a darker eye field with white patches and black areas around the eyes themselves, some with small yellowish scales. Tiny white hairs cover the whole surface. The underside of the cephalothorax, or sternum, is yellow or yellowish-orange. The spider's face, or clypeus, is relatively low and has a covering of white hairs that is particularly dense around its cheeks. Its mouthparts are distinctive, with the brown or light brown chelicerae having darker spots while the labium is yellow or brown and the maxillae are orange-yellow. The male spider's abdomen is similar in size to its carapace, measuring between 1.6 and 1.9 mm (0.07 in) in length and having a width of between 1 and 1.2 mm (0.04 and 0.05 in). The top is generally yellowish with a greyish-brown pattern that looks similar to a large capital "H", and a covering of white and brown hairs. …

Evarcha maculata lives in savanna on mountains. Ethiopian examples have been found living in riverine forests, including those around the Awash River. They will often be found in leaf litter and seem to be particularly partial to trees like Vachellia nilotica. Evarcha spiders will often live in nests constructed of webs amongst the trees. A study of the related Evarcha arcuata found that the spider will rest hanging from a silken thread. It will eat a wide range of food, including aphids, flies and other spiders. Like other jumping spiders, they do not spin webs to catch their prey but instead hunt by ambushing.

Evarcha maculata is a species of jumping spider, a member of the family Salticidae, that was first described by the arachnologists Christine Rollard and Wanda Wesołowska in 2002. Named for a Latin word that can be translated as "spotted" and recalls the pattern on the spider's abdomen, it was one of over 500 species identified by Wesołowska during her career, making her one of the most prolific in the field. They allocated it to the genus Evarcha, first circumscribed by Eugène Simon in 1902. The genus is one of the most speciose, with members found on four continents. In 1976, Jerzy Prószyński placed the genus Evarcha in the subfamily Pelleninae, along with the genera Bianor and Pellenes. In Wayne Maddison's 2015 study of spider phylogenetic classification, the genus Evarcha was moved to the subtribe Plexippina. Plexippina is a member of the tribe Plexippini, which was listed in the subclade Simonida in the clade Saltafresia by Wayne Maddison in 2015. It is closely related to the genera Hyllus and Plexippus. Analysis of protein-coding genes showed it was particularly related to Telamonia. …