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{{Short description|Genus of spiders}}
{{About|the spider genus|the country in Africa|Tanzania}}
{{Automatic taxobox
| name =
| image =
| image_caption =
| image2 =
| image2_caption =
| taxon = Tanzania
| authority = Koçak & Kemal, 2008<ref name=wsc />
| type_species = ''[[Tanzania mkomaziensis|Lilliput mkomaziensis]]''
| type_species_authority = [[Wanda Wesołowska|Wesolowska]] & [[Anthony Russell-Smith|Russell-Smith]], 2000{{sfn|Haddad|Wesołowska|2011|page=122}}
| synonyms = {{genus list|Lilliput|Wesolowska & Russell-Smith, 2000{{sfn|Haddad|Wesołowska|2011|page=122}}}}
| subdivision_ranks = Species
| subdivision = 7, [[#Species|see text]]
}}

'''''Tanzania''''' is a [[genus]] of [[Salticidae|jumping spiders]] that was first identified in [[Tanzania]], after which it is named, but now is recognised to have a much wider distribution. First [[Circumscription (taxonomy)|circumscribed]] in 2008, it is a small spider, between {{convert|1.5|and|3|mm}} in length. Its [[type species]] is ''[[Tanzania mkomaziensis]]'', which was originally [[Species description|described]] in 2000 with the name ''Lilliput mkomaziensis''. Along with the rest of the spiders in the genus ''Lilliput'', this was moved to ''Tanzania'' in 2008. The genus is related to ''[[Euophrys]]'' and ''[[Talavera (spider)|Talavera]]''.

Most spiders in this genus are found in Africa, with ''T. yellapragadai'' [[endemic]] to [[India]].<ref name=wsc />

==Discovery and distribution==
''Tanzania'' is a [[genus]] of [[Salticidae|jumping spiders]] that was first [[Circumscription (taxonomy)|circumscribed]] by the [[Arachnology|arachnologists]] Ahmet Ö. Koçak and Muhabbet Kemalin in 2008. The generic name relates to the [[species distribution]] of the then extant member species.{{sfn|Koçak|Kemal|2008|page=3}} The genus was later found across sub-Saharan Africa.{{sfn|Wesołowska|Azarkina|Russell-Smith|2014|page=44}} This was subsequently extended into Asia.{{sfn|Prajapati|Dudhatra|2022|page=369}} It is likely to have a much greater distribution as its small size and inconspicuous look means that it is often overlooked or dismissed as an immature version of an undeterminable species.{{sfn|Haddad|Wesołowska|2011|page=122}}

==Description==
''Tanzania'' spiders are very small, with body lengths ranging from {{convert|1.3|to|3|mm}}. The males have a distinctive pattern on their [[Opisthosoma|abdomen]].{{sfn|Wesołowska|Azarkina|Russell-Smith|2014|page=44}} Both sexes look alike, but the females are sometimes darker.{{sfn|Wesołowska|Russell-Smith|2000|page=62}} They both have a very long fine hair on the part of the face known as the [[Clypeus (arthropod anatomy)|clypeus]], which is distinctive. Their [[Spider anatomy#Reproductive system|copulatory organs]] also differ in their characteristics to those on other spiders. Females have a large [[epigyne]], the external visible part of their copulatory organs, that has spiral flanges around its copulatory openings. The flanges show evidence of [[sclerotization]]. Inside, they have large spherical receptacles, or [[spermatheca]]e. Males have a coiled ribbon-like [[Embolus (spider anatomy)|embolus]] and lack a tibial [[Apophysis (spider)|apophysis]], the spike often found on the palpal tibia of jumoing spiders.{{sfn|Wesołowska|Azarkina|Russell-Smith|2014|page=44}}

==Taxonomy==
In [[Wayne Maddison]]'s 2015 study of spider [[phylogenetic classification]], the genus ''Tanzania'' was placed in the [[Tribe (biology)|tribe]] Euophryini {{sfn|Maddison|2015|page=279}} This is a member of the [[Clade (biology)|clade]] Saltafresia.{{sfn|Maddison|2015|page=246}} Spiders in the genus are related to ''[[Euophrys]]'' and ''[[Talavera (spider)|Talavera]]''.{{sfn|Wesołowska|Russell-Smith|2000|page=62}} Junxia Zhang and Maddison speculated that it may be in a clade with ''[[Thyenula]]'' but that relationship has not been confirmed.{{sfn|Zhang|Maddison|2015|page=32}} In 2017, [[Jerzy Prószyński]] placed the genus in an informal group called euophryines.{{sfn|Prószyński|2017|pages=72–73}}

Three new species discovered in Tanzania by [[Wanda Wesołowska|Wesolowska]] and Russell-Smith in 2000, and given the genus name ''Lilliput'' (''L. mkomazienis'', ''L. minutus'' and ''L. pusillus'') are now included in the genus ''Tanzania''.{{sfn|Koçak|Kemal|2008|page=3}} ''Lilliput'', circumscribed by the authors at the same time, was named after the nation in the novel [[Gulliver's Travels]] to signify the small size of the spider.{{sfn|Wesołowska|Russell-Smith|2000|page=61}} The name ''Lilliput'' was already held by a genus of [[beetle]] and so the species in the genus were moved to ''Tanzania''.{{sfn|Koçak|Kemal|2008|page=3}}

==Species==
{{as of|2025|10}}, this genus includes seven species:<ref name="wsc" />
{{Div col}}
* ''[[Tanzania meridionalis]]'' Haddad & [[Wanda Wesołowska|Wesołowska]], 2011 – [[South Africa]]
* ''[[Tanzania minutus]]'' (Wesołowska & Russell-Smith, 2000) – [[Tanzania]], South Africa
* ''[[Tanzania mkomaziensis]]'' (Wesołowska & Russell-Smith, 2000) – [[Ivory Coast]], [[Nigeria]], [[Ethiopia]], Tanzania, South Africa (type species)
* ''[[Tanzania parvulus]]'' Wesołowska, Azarkina & Russell-Smith, 2014 – South Africa
* ''[[Tanzania pusillus]]'' (Wesołowska & Russell-Smith, 2000) – Tanzania
* ''[[Tanzania striatus]]'' Wesołowska, Azarkina & Russell-Smith, 2014 – South Africa
* ''[[Tanzania yellapragadai]]'' Prajapati & Dudhatra, 2022 – [[India]]
{{Div col end}}

==References==
===Citations===
{{Reflist|30em|refs=
<ref name="wsc">{{cite web | url=https://wsc.nmbe.ch/genus/2995 | title=Gen. ''Tanzania'' Koçak & Kemal, 2008 | publisher=World Spider Catalog | doi=10.24436/2 | accessdate=2025-10-17}}</ref>
}}

===Bibliography===
*{{cite journal | last1=Haddad | first1=Charles R. | last2=Wesołowska | first2=Wanda | year=2011 | title=New species and new records of jumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae) from central South Africa | journal=African Invertebrates | volume=52 | number=1 | pages=51–134 | doi=10.5733/afin.052.0105 | s2cid=86586010 | url=http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.5733/afin.052.0105 | doi-access=free | author-link2=Wanda Wesołowska}}*{{cite journal | last1=Koçak | first1=Ahmet Ö. | last2=Kemal | first2=Muhabbet | year=2008 | title=New synonyms and replacement names in the genus group taxa of Araneida | journal= Miscellaneous Papers, Centre for Entomological Studies Ankara | volume=139–140 | issn=1015-8235 | pages=1–4}}
*{{cite journal | last=Maddison | first=Wayne P. |title=A phylogenetic classification of jumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae) | journal=The Journal of Arachnology | year= 2015 | volume=43 | number=3 | pages=231–292 | doi=10.1636/arac-43-03-231-292|s2cid=85680279 | author-link=Wayne Maddison}}
*{{cite journal | last1=Prajapati | first1=Dhruv A. | last2=Dudhatra | first2=Ashutosh V. | year=2022 | title=First record of the spider genus ''Tanzania'' Koçak & Kemal, 2008 from Asia, with the description of a new species (Araneae: Salticidae) | journal=Revue Suisse de Zoologie | volume=129 | issue=2 | pages=369–374 | doi=10.35929/RSZ.0082| doi-access=free }}
*{{cite journal | last=Prószyński | first=Jerzy | year=2017 | title=Pragmatic classification of the world's Salticidae (Araneae) | journal=Ecologica Montenegrina | volume=12 | pages=1–133 | doi=10.37828/em.2017.12.1| doi-access=free | author-link=Jerzy Prószyński}}
*{{cite journal | last1=Wesołowska | first1=Wanda | last2=Azarkina | first2=Galina N. | last3=Russell-Smith | first3=Anthony | year=2014 | title=Euophryine jumping spiders of the Afrotropical Region—new taxa and a checklist (Araneae: Salticidae: Euophryinae) | journal=Zootaxa | volume=3789 | number=1 | pages=1–72 | doi=10.11646/zootaxa.3789.1.1 | pmid=24869747 | author-link1=Wanda Wesołowska}}
*{{cite journal | last1=Wesołowska | first1=Wanda | last2=Russell-Smith | first2=Anthony | year=2000 | title=Jumping spiders from Mkomazi Game Reserve in Tanzania (Araneae Salticidae) | journal=Tropical Zoology | volume=13 | number=1 | pages=11–127 | doi=10.1080/03946975.2000.10531126 | bibcode=2000TrZoo..13...11W | s2cid=85300462 | url=http://ejour-fup.unifi.it/index.php/tropicalzoology/article/download/40/39 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722062343/http://ejour-fup.unifi.it/index.php/tropicalzoology/article/download/40/39 | url-status=dead | archive-date=2011-07-22 | url-access=subscription}}
*{{cite journal | last1=Zhang | first1=Junxia | last2=Maddison | first2=Wayne P. | year=2015 | title=Genera of euophryine jumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae), with a combined molecular-morphological phylogeny | journal=Zootaxa | volume=3938 | number=1 | pages=1–147 | doi=10.11646/zootaxa.3938.1.1| pmid=25947489}}

==External links==
* {{inaturalist taxon}}
* [http://salticidae.org/salticid/diagnost/lilliput/lilliput.htm Diagnostic drawings of three species]

{{Taxonbar|from=Q655495}}

[[Category:Salticidae genera]]
[[Category:Salticidae]]
[[Category:Spiders of Africa]]

Tanzania (spider) - Revision history

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