Portia africana is a jumping spider (family Salticidae) found in Angola, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Gabon, Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Zaire and Zambia.

While other Portias live and hunt as individuals, P. africana forms large populations both in savanna areas and in the dense "cities" which social jumping spiders build in vegetation near the shoreline of lakes.

Before courtship, males spin a small web between boughs or twigs, that they hang under, ejaculate into, and then soak the semen into reservoirs on their pedipalps.

The female's carapace has faint sooty markings, and short fine white and light brownish hairs lying over the surface, with a scanty tuft behind the fovea.

However, members of Portia have vision about as acute as the best of the jumping spiders, for example: the salticine Mogrus neglectus can distinguish prey and conspecifics up to 320 millimetres away (42 times its own body length), while P. fimbriata can distinguish these up to 280 millimetres (47 times its own body length).

[15] The main eyes of a Portia can also identify features of the scenery up to 85 times its own body length, which helps the spider to find detours.

[16]: 21 However, a Portia takes a relatively long time to see objects, possibly because getting a good image out of such small eyes is a complex process and requires a lot of scanning.

[2] Spiders, like other arthropods, have sensors, often modified setae (bristles), for smell, taste, touch and vibration protruding through their cuticle ("skin").

[18][19] Most species of jumping spiders appear to be cursorial (adapted to run[20]), allowing them to hunt insects without using webs.

A group of small juveniles can prevent jumping spiders and oecobiids from entering or leaving its nest.

[22]: 1  Nagusta usually hunts in groups of two to three, apparently catches P. africana when the latter is busy invading a jumping nest complex,[22]: 14–15  and often shares the prey.

[22]: 10 Web-based spiders have poor spatial appreciation and get much of their information from reading tensions and movement in their web.

[7] P. africana, P. fimbraba and P. labiata can use their eight legs and two palps to pluck another spider's web with a virtually unlimited range of movements, using a trial and error method,[23] until it finds and repeats a set of movements that either lures the prey out into the open or calms the prey while the Portia walks slowly close enough to bite the victim.

[27]: 418 Females of Portia also build webs to catch prey directly,[2][28] and those of P. africana are usually attached to rigid surfaces such as rocks and tree trunks.

[10]: 468 Before courtship, a male Portia spins a small web between boughs or twigs, which he hangs under and ejaculates on to.

[10]: 467 When moulting, all Portias spin a horizontal web of a diameter about twice their body length and suspended 1 to 4 millimetres (0.039 to 0.157 in) below a leaf.

[25]: 513 P. africana has been found in Angola, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Gabon, Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Zaire and Zambia.

There, P. africana appears in large, dense but localised populations of three species of jumping spider, all with bodies less than 5.0 millimetres long.

[10]: 432 In vegetation near the shoreline of Lake Victoria, social jumping spiders build dense nest complexes, in which P. africana hunts.

[1]: 93–94, 99–100, 102–105 Portia africana is closely relation to P. alboguttata, of which only females have been found, in Malawi and South Africa.

[25]: 491  Molecular phylogeny, a technique that compares the DNA of organisms to construct the tree of life, indicates that Portia is a member of the clade Spartaeinae, that Spartaeinae is basal (quite similar to the ancestors of all jumping spiders), and that the Spartaeus, Phaeacius, and Holcolaetis genera are its closest relatives.

[36]c: ^ "Propulsive displays" are sudden, quick movements including striking, charging, ramming and leaps.