Stenaelurillus brandbergensis

The spider is medium-sized and has a body that is divided into two main parts: a pear-shaped cephalothorax and an oval abdomen. It is generally similar to Stenaelurillus guttatus although smaller and marked with a different pattern on its abdomen. The male has a cephalothorax that measures between 1.7 and 1.9 mm (0.067 and 0.075 in) in length and between 1.2 and 1.3 mm (0.047 and 0.051 in) in width. It has a black, medium high carapace, the hard upper part of the cephalothorax, which is marked with a pattern of two wide stripes that run from the front to the back and has white edges. It is covered in brown hairs. Its eye field is short, about a half the size of its thorax, and has a covering of dense long bristles. There are some white hairs near the eyes on some of the specimens found. The underside of the cephalothorax, or sternum, is oval and dark brown. The part of the spider's face known as its clypeus is low and brown with a few white hairs found on it. Its chelicerae is dark brown with two teeth towards the front and a single small tooth to the rear. Its remaining mouthparts, its labium and maxillae are brown with, in some cases, yellowish tips. The male's abdomen is black and hairy, between 1.6 and 2.1 mm (0.063 and 0.083 in) long and 1.2 and 1.4 mm (0.047 and 0.055 in) wide. Its front edge is straight. Some specimens have a small delicate hard scutum on its back. …

The species was first identified in the area around the Brandberg Mountain in Namibia. It is endemic to the country. It is one of the most common jumping spiders found in the area.

Mashonarus brandbergensis is a species of jumping spider, a member of the family Salticidae that was first described by the arachnologistWanda Wesołowska in 2006. It is one of over 500 species identified by the Polish scientist. It was initially placed in the genus Mashonarus, which had been circumscribed by Wesołowska and Meg S. Cumming in 2002. The genus name was derived from Mashonaland, the area where it was first found. The spiders in the genus were medium-sized, between 4.2 and 7.0 mm (0.17 and 0.28 in) in length, and were differentiated by their sexual organs. At the time, the species was seen as very similar to Stenaelurillus, particularly in the structure of the epigyne and the shield-like shape of and patterns on the abdomen. The species was moved to Stenaelurillus by Dmitri Logunov and Galina Azarkina in 2018. Stenaelurillus had been first raised by Eugène Simon in 1885. 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. In 2017, it was grouped with nine other genera of jumping spiders under the name Aelurillines. Wayne Maddison has been placed it in the subtribe Aelurillina in the tribe Aelurillini in the clade Saltafresia. The specific name is derived from the place where it was first found, the Brandberg Mountain.