Spider Appreciation Thread

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Black widow

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New species of spider named after enchanted 'Harry Potter' sorting hat. Scientists in India have taken inspiration from J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series of books and movies in naming a distinctive new species of spider.

The triangular creature resembles the Hogwarts "sorting hat" that's used to place young wizards and witches into their respective school "houses." The spider has been named Eriovixia gryffindori, a nod to Gryffindor house, into which Harry Potter himself was sorted on his first day as a Hogwarts student.

"This uniquely shaped spider derives its name from the fabulous, sentient magical artifact, the sorting hat, owned by the (fictitious) medieval wizard Godric Gryffindor, one of the four founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry..." the report from the Indian Journal of Arachnology, said.

In response to the spider's naming, the woman who dreamed up the Harry Potter universe, author J.K. Rowling, tweeted: "I'm truly honored!"



Source

[PHDNM]

18 new species of pelican spiders discovered

Despite their name, pelican spiders aren’t massive, fish-eating monstrosities.

In fact, the shy spiders in the family Archaeidae are as long as a grain of rice and are a threat only to other spiders.

Discovering a new species of these tiny Madagascar spiders is tough, but Hannah Wood has done just that — 18 times over.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/...ers-discovered

[PHDNM]

How brightly colored spiders evolved on Hawaii again and again... and again

About 2 to 3 million years ago, a group of spiders let out long silk threads into the wind and set sail, so to speak, across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii. These spiders were parasites of other spiders, invading their webs, snipping threads to steal insects that had been caught. But there weren't many webs to rob on Hawaii when they arrived. So they expanded their repertoire, looking for other ways to survive by trapping and eating other spiders. A new species evolved from those first spiders, after finding a way to live on rocks. And then another species evolved to live under leaves. And then another. And then 11 more species.

https://phys.org/news/2018-03-hawaii...sland.html#jCp

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