Belippo eburnensis

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Belippo eburnensis is a tiny jumping spider found on the forest floor in Ivory Coast. It belongs to the ant-mimicking genus Belippo in the Salticidae family and was described in 2020 by Wanda Wesołowska and Małgorzata Wiśniewski. The species is named after Ivory Coast and is known only from this country.

Size and appearance: Both male and female resemble Crematogaster ants. The spider is mainly black, with a lighter underside and a white patch on the top near the line where the head meets the thorax. Males have legs with different colors: the front legs are mostly black, the second pair is whitish-yellow, and the back pair is mainly black.

Measurements:
- Male: cephalothorax about 2.0–2.1 mm long and 0.9–1.0 mm wide; abdomen about 2.1–2.3 mm long and 1.0–1.1 mm wide.
- Female: cephalothorax about 2.2–2.4 mm long and 1.3–1.5 mm wide; abdomen about 2.1–2.3 mm long and 1.4–1.5 mm wide.

Keys to telling them apart: The male’s embolus ends in a distinctive pincer-like tip, which helps identify the species. The male’s chelicerae are dark brown with three teeth at the front and six at the back, and there is a forward-pointing spine. The female is similar in overall look but has thinner legs (mostly black with yellow on the second legs) and a different shape of the copulatory organs (epigyne) inside the abdomen.

Habitat and range: Belippo eburnensis is endemic to Ivory Coast. The holotype was found in 2018 on Mount Toukoui near Man, at about 1,200 meters above sea level. Other specimens have been found nearby. It lives among shrubs on the forest floor between trees.