Leptorchestes separatus

Leptorchestes separatus are small ant-like spiders. Their body is divided into two main parts: a cephalothorax and an abdomen. The male carapace, the hard upper part of the cephalothorax, is typically 1.3 mm (0.05 in) long and 0.9 mm (0.04 in) wide while the female is typically 1.5 mm (0.06 in) long and 0.8 mm (0.03 in) wide. It is fawnish-brown, very flat and has short hairs. Its eye field is pockmarked and there are a few long hairs and black rings around its eyes. The underside of the cephalothorax, or sternum, is light brown. The spider's clypeus is brown, very low and have long protruding bristles. It has long brown chelicerae. It has two teeth on its front The remainder of the mouthparts, including its labium and maxillae, are light brown. The male's abdomen is typically 2 mm (0.08 in) long and 0.9 mm wide. It is pear-shaped and covered in a few short hairs with a top that is yellowish-brown at the front and black to the back, and a uniformly brownish underside. Its book lung covers are large. It has brown spinnerets and pedipalps. Its legs are long and thin, particularly the fourth pair of legs, They are generally light brown with dark stripes on the third and fourth pairs. There is a long pedicel that connects between the carapace and the abdomen, The female's abdomen is typically 2.3 mm (0.09 in) long and 0.9 mm wide. …

Leptorchestes spiders live in the Afrotropical and Palearctic realms. Leptorchestes separatus was the first species in the genus to be found in sub-Saharan Africa. It is endemic to Namibia, the first examples being found in Etosha National Park in 1998. Leptorchestes species are typically ground-dwelling spiders.

Leptorchestes separatus is a species of jumping spider, a member of the family Salticidae, that was first described by the arachnologists Wanda Wesołowska and Małgorzata Szeremeta in 2001. They assigned the species to the genus Leptorchestes, first circumscribed by Tamerlan Thorell in 1870. In Wayne Maddison's 2015 study of spider phylogenetic classification, the genus Leptorchestes was allocated to the tribe Leptorchestini, named by Eugène Simon in 1901. The tribe is a member of the subclade Simonida in the clade Saltafresia in the subfamily Salticinae. In 2016, Jerzy Prószyński added the genus to a group of genera named Menemerines, named after the genus Menemerus alongside Kima. Genetic analysis has confirmed that is also related to Paramarpissa and Yllenus. The specific name is a Latin word that can be translated 'separate' and relates to the distance between this species and all those that had been described before.