Tusitala

This article is about the genus of spiders. For the writer known to the Samoans as Tusitala, see Robert Louis Stevenson.

Tusitala is a genus of jumping spiders that was first described by George and Elizabeth Peckham in 1902.^[3] The name is Samoan, meaning "writer of stories". It is considered a senior synonym of Blaisea.^[2]

Tusitala
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Infraorder:	Araneomorphae
Family:	Salticidae
Subfamily:	Salticinae
Genus:	Tusitala Peckham & Peckham, 1902[1]
Type species
T. barbata Peckham & Peckham, 1902
Species
10, see text
Synonyms[1]
Blaisea Simon, 1903[2]

Species

As of December 2023^[update] the genus contains ten species, found in Africa and Yemen:^[1]

• Tusitala ansieae Azarkina & Foord, 2015 – Botswana
• Tusitala bandama Wesolowska & Russell-Smith, 2022 – Ivory Coast
• Tusitala barbata Peckham & Peckham, 1902 (type) – West, East, Southern Africa
• Tusitala cornuta Wesołowska & Russell-Smith, 2022 – Ivory Coast
• Tusitala discibulba Caporiacco, 1941 – Ethiopia
• Tusitala guineensis Berland & Millot, 1941 – Guinea
• Tusitala hirsuta Peckham & Peckham, 1902 – Southern, East Africa
• Tusitala lutzi Lessert, 1927 – Congo
• Tusitala lyrata (Simon, 1903) – Africa
• Tusitala proxima Wesołowska & Russell-Smith, 2000 – Tanzania
• Tusitala unica Wesolowska & Russell-Smith, 2000 – Tanzania
• Tusitala yemenica Wesolowska & van Harten, 1994 – Yemen