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WillParkinson

(16,862 posts)
Thu May 25, 2017, 01:08 AM May 2017

Huge new spiders species discovered in Mexican cave

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/huge-new-spider-species-discovered-mexican-cave-180962848/

Arachnophobes, go to your happy place and please click here. Researchers from the San Diego Natural History Museum along with other experts recently unveiled a new spider species found in Mexico that is roughly the size of a softball, reports Deborah Sullivan Brennan at the Los Angeles Times.

According to a blog post from the museum, in 2013 field entomologist Jim Berrian and a team of researchers found the spider while exploring the Sierra Cacachilas, a small mountain range in Baja California Sur in Mexico. Investigating a cave in the area, they noticed a giant exoskeleton hanging from the ceiling. Instead of running back to their hotel and hiding under the covers, they decided to return that night, since they identified the spider as belonging to a genus of arachnids that are often nocturnal. That night, in the darkened cave, the team got their first look at what is now known as Califorctenus cacachilensis, or the Sierra Cacachilas wandering spider. The official description of the new spider appears in the journal Zootaxa.

“When I saw these spiders for the first time, I was very impressed by their size,” Baja spider expert Maria Luisa Jimenez, a researcher at Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas del Noroeste, says in the blog post. “In all my experience over the years collecting spiders on the peninsula, I had never seen a spider this large. I suspected that something new was waiting to be described.”
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Huge new spiders species discovered in Mexican cave (Original Post) WillParkinson May 2017 OP
Shelob lives! lapfog_1 May 2017 #1
Just a snack for the Goliath Bird Eater. RandySF May 2017 #2
It's kind of cute in a weird way Warpy May 2017 #3
I had a spider... Not a big thing like this.. magicarpet May 2017 #4
Is this a teaser for Season 2? SCantiGOP May 2017 #5

RandySF

(57,661 posts)
2. Just a snack for the Goliath Bird Eater.
Thu May 25, 2017, 01:49 AM
May 2017

Known as the South American Goliath birdeater (Theraphosa blondi), the colossal arachnid is the world's largest spider, according to Guinness World Records. Its leg span can reach up to a foot (30 centimeters), or about the size of "a child's forearm," with a body the size of "a large fist," Naskrecki told Live Science. And the spider can weigh more than 6 oz. (170 grams) — about as much as a young puppy, the scientist wrote on his blog. [See Photos of the Goliath Birdeater Spider]

Warpy

(110,913 posts)
3. It's kind of cute in a weird way
Thu May 25, 2017, 03:00 AM
May 2017

and reminds me of one I had living in the back yard for a while. I'd go out and it would pop out of its hole and wave its front legs at me. I'd wiggle my fingers at it in return, and it would go back down the hole.

Generally speaking, I don't mind spiders. They eat all the worse stuff.

magicarpet

(13,945 posts)
4. I had a spider... Not a big thing like this..
Thu May 25, 2017, 07:41 AM
May 2017

It lived behind the driver's side view mirror inside the hollow black plastic housing. Every morning I went out to start the truck and there was an elaborate woven spider web. This web was anchored to the mirror, the rain visor, and the door handle.

I would feel guilty getting in the truck in the morning to go off to work because the drive tore the spider web to shreds. The next morning when I went to get in the truck the new spider web was there to greet me.

One morning I watched and saw he was living in the housing of the mirror in the hollow area just behind the reflective glass that permits the mirror to swivel.

This went on for about three or four months. Every morning I would drive off to go to work and rip the web to shreds. During the night the spider spun a brand new intricate fancy web and I would come out the next morning a yet again find a spider web attached to the side of my truck.

It almost took on the personna of a human/pet relationship or something. Every morning it was there to greet me and show a new woven spider web design.

I felt bad driving off in the truck and damaging the web.

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