Kerala forests home to new spider species

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  • A group of jumping spiders that mostly occur in Eurasia and Africa, has been spotted for the first time in Ernakulam’s Illithodu forests in kerala.
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  • Physical features of the spider:
    (1) They belong to the genus Habrocestum that has been recorded mostly in Eurasia and Africa and never in India, till now.
    (2) Comparisons with studies of European Habrocestum spiders revealed that the spiders from Illithode are a new species altogether, for they had distinctly different reproductive organs.
    (3) The spider also has a single long spine on the underside of both its first legs, and this gave it its scientific name Habrocestumlongispinum (after Latin ‘longe’ meaning long and ‘spinae’ for spine).
    (4) It measures just around 2 mm and seems to prefer dry habitats, dwelling in forest litter.
Source
The hindu.




Posted by Jawwad Kazi on 6th Apr 2019
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