Mexcala macilenta

Mexcala macilenta
A spider of the Mexcala genus
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Infraorder:	Araneomorphae
Family:	Salticidae
Subfamily:	Salticinae
Genus:	Mexcala
Species:	M. macilenta
Binomial name
Mexcala macilenta Wesołowska & Russell-Smith, 2000

Mexcala macilenta is a species of jumping spider in the genus Mexcala that lives in Ethiopia and Tanzania. The spider was first defined in 2000 by Wanda Wesołowska and Anthony Russell-Smith. It mimics ants and ant-like wasps, living alongside and preying upon them. The spider is medium-sized to large, with a brown carapace between 3.2 and 3.4 mm (0.13 and 0.13 in) long and a rusty-brown or greyish-russet abdomen between 3.2 and 5.5 mm (0.13 and 0.22 in) long. The female is larger than the male. Both male and females have long thin brown legs and a distinctive pattern of a large triangular black marking in the middle of the abdomen. The male copulatory organs have a thin tibial apophysis and lack the triangular lobe on the palpal bulb that other species in the genus possess.