Phintella paludosa

The species is similar to the related Phintella aequipes, which is found throughout Africa, in size and colour but differs in the structure of its copulatory organs. The male has a cephalothorax, the front section of its body, that is typically 2.3 mm (0.091 in) in length, 1.6 mm (0.063 in) in width and 0.9 mm (0.035 in) in height. The top side of its cephalothorax, its carapace, is a brown oval, covered in short brownish hairs. There are dark rings and longer bristles around its eyes. The underside of its cephalothorax, or sternum, is brown. The part of the spider's face known as its clypeus is brownish and features some white scales. Its chelicerae, which act as its jaws, are long and slender. As well as a long fang, they have two teeth along their front and another towards the back. Its remaining mouthparts, its labium and maxillae, are brownish apart from their white tips. The male has an oval abdomen that is typically 2.2 mm (0.087 in) long and 1.6 mm (0.063 in) wide. On top, it is very dark, almost black, and shiny with a pattern that consists of a white patch towards the middle and three white spots along its edges. The white areas are covered in white scales. Underneath, it is a uniform dark brown. To spin webs, it has spinnerets, the front set yellowish, the back set black. Its legs are long and have sections that are black and yellow. …

Phintella spiders are common across much of Africa. Phintella paludosa was first found in the Cross Rivers State in Nigeria, at the edge of a swamp. In 2022, when Wesołowska and Anthony Russell-Smith were undertaking an assessment of a large collection of spiders brought by Jean-Claude Ledoux from Ivory Coast to France between August 1974 and January 1976, they discovered another example that originated in the Lamto Scientific Reserve in Ivory Coast. The first discovery of the species in southern Africa was recorded in Tete, Mozambique. It has also been seen in the Nimba Mountains in Guinea, at an altitude of 1,100 m (3,600 ft) above sea level. It is now recognised as having a species distribution that includes all four countries. As well as swamps, it lives in forests.

Phintella paludosa is a jumping spider, a member of the family Salticidae, that was first described by the arachnologists Wanda Wesołowska and G. B. Edwards in 2012. It is one of over 500 species identified by Wesołowska during her career. The spider was initially described based on a holotype specimen found by Jonathan Reid between 1978 and 1984. Reid, who was affiliated with the University of Calabar at the time, subsequently deposited it at Florida State Collection of Arthropods while attached to the University of Florida. It is now located at the National Museum of Natural History, France. The spider's specific name is derived from the Latin word for "marshy", and refers to the marshy ground where it was first discovered. It was placed in the genus Phintella, first raised in 1906 by Embrik Strand and W. Bösenberg. Its generic name derives from the genus Phintia, which it resembles. The genus Phintia was itself renamed Phintodes, which was subsequently absorbed into Tylogonus. There are similarities between spiders within genus Phintella and those in Chira, Chrysilla, Euophrys, Icius, Jotus and Telamonia. Genetic analysis confirms that it is related to the genera Helvetia and Menemerus and is classified in the tribe Chrysillini.