Stenaelurillus senegalensis

Stenaelurillus senegalensis is a medium-sized spider with a body that is divided into two main parts, a cephalothorax and an abdomen. The male has a brown carapace, the hard upper part of the cephalothorax, that measures between 1.7 and 2.1 mm (0.067 and 0.083 in) in length and between 1.4 and 1.6 mm (0.055 and 0.063 in) in width. It is covered in brown scales and has wide stripes made of white scales, along with edging also of white scales. Its eye field is brown and is decorated with both yellow-white scales and long brown bristles. The underside of the cephalothorax, or sternum, is yellow. The spider has yellow chelicerae that are covered with white hairs. The remainder of its mouthparts, including its labium and maxillae, are also yellow. Long white hairs also cover its yellow or brown-yellow clypeus. The male's abdomen is dark brown on top and yellow underneath, measuring between 1.6 and 2.0 mm (0.063 and 0.079 in) long and 1.3 and 1.45 mm (0.051 and 0.057 in) wide. It has a dark brown scutum that covers two-thirds of the surface and a pattern consisting of four yellow spots and a wide hairy brown stripe. The spider has yellow book lung covers and, while its front spinnerets are yellow, its back ones are brown; its legs are also brown. There are white hairs on its yellow pedipalps. Its copulatory organs are distinctive. …

Stenaelurillus species are found throughout Africa apart from particular areas near the equator. They are particularly common in western and central Africa. Stenaelurillus senegalensis is endemic to Senegal. The holotype was identified based on a specimen collected near Richard Toll in 1991. It is known only from that local area. There is some overlap with the range of the more widely distributed Stenaelurillus nigricaudus, which is also found in the same country but has also been found in other areas of Africa. It has been found in areas of savanna.

Stenaelurillus senegalensis, is a species of jumping spider, a member of the family Salticidae, that was first described by the arachnologists Dmitri Logunov and Galina Azarkina in 2018. It was placed in the genus Stenaelurillus, first raised by Eugène Simon in 1886. It was placed in the subtribe Aelurillina in the tribe Aelurillini by Wayne Maddison in 2015, who listed the tribe in the clade Saltafresia. Two years later, in 2017, it was grouped with nine other genera of jumping spiders under the name Aelurillines. The genus name relates to the genus name Aelurillus, which itself derives from the Greek word for cat, with the addition of a Greek stem meaning narrow. The species is named after Senegal, the country in which it was first found.