Mexcala Explained

Mexcala is a genus of jumping spiders that was first described by George and Elizabeth Peckham in 1902.^[1] The name is probably derived from the Nahuatl mezcal.

Species

it contains twenty-one species, found only in Africa, Yemen, and Iran:^[2]

• Mexcala agilis Lawrence, 1928 – Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Namibia
• Mexcala angolensis Wesolowska, 2009 – Angola
• Mexcala caerulea (Simon, 1901) – West Africa
• Mexcala elegans Peckham & Peckham, 1903 – Ivory Coast, Malawi, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa
• Mexcala farsensis Logunov, 2001 – Iran
• Mexcala fizi Wesolowska, 2009 – Congo, Tanzania
• Mexcala formosa Wesolowska & Tomasiewicz, 2008 – Ethiopia
• Mexcala kabondo Wesolowska, 2009 – Congo, Malawi, Tanzania
• Mexcala macilenta Wesolowska & Russell-Smith, 2000 – Ethiopia, Tanzania
• Mexcala meridiana Wesolowska, 2009 – South Africa
• Mexcala monstrata Wesolowska & van Harten, 1994 – Egypt, Yemen
• Mexcala namibica Wesolowska, 2009 – Namibia
• Mexcala nigrocyanea (Simon, 1886) – Libya, Egypt, Ethiopia
• Mexcala ovambo Wesolowska, 2009 – Namibia
• Mexcala quadrimaculata (Lawrence, 1942) – Zimbabwe, South Africa
• Mexcala rufa Peckham & Peckham, 1902 (type) – Namibia, South Africa
• Mexcala signata Wesolowska, 2009 – Kenya, Tanzania
• Mexcala smaragdina Wesolowska & Edwards, 2012 – Nigeria
• Mexcala synagelese Wesolowska, 2009 – Sudan, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Congo, Angola
• Mexcala torquata Wesolowska, 2009 – Ivory Coast, Guinea
• Mexcala vicina Wesolowska, 2009 – Cameroon, Congo

Notes and References

1. Peckham. G. W.. Peckham. E. G.. 1902. Some new genera and species of Attidae from South Africa. Psyche: A Journal of Entomology. 330–335. 9. 312. 10.1155/1902/13502. George and Elizabeth Peckham. George and Elizabeth Peckham. free.
2. Gen. Mexcala Peckham & Peckham, 1902. World Spider Catalog Version 20.0. 2019-07-23. 2019. Natural History Museum Bern. 10.24436/2.