Longleg Dandy

Appearance

In this species, which is slightly smaller than some other species of the genus ''Portia'', the bodies of females are 5 to 7 mm long, while those of males are 4 to 6 mm long.

The carapaces of both sexes are orange-brown with dark brown mottling, and covered with dark brown and whitish hairs lying over the surface. Males have white tufts on their thoraces and a broad white band above the bases of the legs, and these features are less conspicuous in females.

Both sexes have tufts of orange to dark orange above the eyes, which are fringed with pale orange hairs. Males' abdomens are yellow-orange to orange-brown with blackish mottling, and on the upper sides are black and light orange hairs, and nine white tufts. Those of females are pale yellow and have black markings with scattered white and orange-brown hairs on the upper side. ''P. schultzi'' has relatively longer legs than other ''Portia'', and a "lolloping" gait.

Habitat

''P. schultzi''′s range runs from Durban in the south to Malindi in the north, and westwards to the East African Rift, and also in West Africa and Madagascar.

''P. schultzi'', along with a large variety of spiders and insects, is often found in the dense, large webs of the diplurid ''Ischnothele karschi'', which are especially abundant in partly cleared secondary bush where rain forests have been cut down, and usually about one metre above the ground. A survey of one area suggested that there is about one ''P. schultzi'' per three ''I. karschi'' webs. ''P. schultzi'' is also found in its own web and those of other spiders, on tree trunks and the walls of buildings, and in leaf litter.

Reproduction

Before courtship, a male ''Portia'' spins a small web between boughs or twigs, and he hangs under that and ejaculates on to it. He then soaks the semen into reservoirs on his pedipalps, which are larger than those of females. Females of many spider species, including ''P. schultzi'', emit volatile pheromones into the air, and these generally attract males from a distance.

Among ''P. schultzi'' and some other ''Portia''s, when adults of the same species but opposite sexes recognise each other, they display at 10 to 30 centimetres. Males usually wait for 2 to 15 minutes before starting a display, but sometimes a female starts a display first.

''Portia''s sometimes use "propulsive displays", with which a member threatens a rival of the same species and sex, and unreceptive females also threaten males in this way. A propulsive display is a series of sudden, quick movements including striking, charging, ramming and leaps. In ''P. schultzi'' and in some other species, contests between males usually last only 5 to 10 seconds, and only their legs make contact.

Contests between ''Portia'' females are violent and embraces in ''P. schultzi'' typically take 20 to 60 seconds. These occasionally include grappling that sometimes breaks a leg, but more usually the final move is a lunge. Sometimes one knocks the other on her back and the other may be killed and eaten if she does not right herself quickly and run away. If the loser has a nest, the winner takes over and eats any eggs there.

A female ''P. schultzi'' that sees a male may approach slowly or wait. The male then walks erect and displaying by waving his legs and palps. If the female does not run away, she gives a propulsive display first. If the male stands his ground and she does not run away or repeat the propulsive display, he approaches and, if she is mature, they copulate. If the female is sub-adult , a male may cohabit in the female's capture web. ''Portia''s usually mate on a web or on a dragline made by the female. ''P. schultzi'' typically copulates for about 100 seconds, while other genera can take several minutes or even several hours.

Females of ''P. schultzi'', like those of ''P. labiata'', try to kill and eat their mates during or after copulation, by twisting and lunging. The males wait until the females have hunched their legs, making this attack less likely. Males also try to abseil from a silk thread to approach from above, but females may manoeuvre to get the higher position. If the female moves at all, the male leaps and runs away.

Before being mature enough to mate, females of ''P. shultzi'' and also ''P. labiata'' mimic adult females to attract males as prey.

''P. schultzi'' usually lays eggs on dead, brown leaves about 20 millimetres long, suspended near the top of its capture web, and then cover the eggs with a sheet of silk. If there is no dead leaf available, the female will make a small horizontal silk platform in the capture web, lay the eggs on it, and then cover the eggs. ''P. schultzi'' has been seen laying eggs in a rolled-up leaf in a web of ''Ischnothele karschi''.What Forster & Murphy call ''Ischnothele karschi'' has since 1995 to 2011 called ''Thelechoris striatipes''.

For moulting, all ''Portia''s spin a horizontal web whose diameter is about twice the spider's body length and is suspended only 1 to 4 millimetres below a leaf. The spider lies head down, and often slides down 20 to 30 millimetres during moulting. ''Portia''s spin a similar temporary web for resting. Like all arthropods, spiders moult and, after hatching, the life stage before each moult is called an "instar". The distinctive tufts of ''P. schultzi'' juveniles appear in the third instar.

''P. schultzi'' exuviae have been found both in their own webs and in those of ''I. karschi'', which has suggested that ''P. schultzi'' moults in the open. In one case, while its new skin was still pale and soft, its spinnerets were still stuck in the discarded skin, and the spider slowly twirled for about 90 seconds until it was free. The spider's body then darkened quickly to the normal colouration, and some time later the spider hung in its usual upside-down posture in the web.

Food

While most jumping spiders focus accurately up to about 75 cm away, ''P. schultzi'' responds to a maximum of about 10 cm in good light, and ignores everything in very subdued light. For prey, ''P. schultzi'' prefers web-based spiders, then jumping spiders, and finally insects. The females of ''P. schultzi'' and other ''Portia'' species build "capture webs" to catch prey, and often join their own webs on to web-based spiders to catch the other spiders or their prey.