Arachnologists have described a new species of giant spider. So far, only three live individuals have been found living in southern Africa and Madagascar. But no one has ever seen such giants
Scientists Matthias Küntner and Jonathan Coddington described a new species of orb-web spider of the Nephilidae family and named it after their deceased colleague. According to their data, the spider they found is the largest on Earth.
Spiders are spiders known for their huge webs. Their webs often have a diameter of more than a meter, and they themselves reach sizes of several tens of centimeters. Their important distinctive feature is significant sexual dimorphism: females are several times larger than males.
In the course of his work on refining the classification of the Nephilian family, Küntner stumbled upon an unusual female in one of Pretoria's museums. She did not fit any of the previous descriptions. Then it was assumed that this is either a hybrid or an extinct species. At the same time, several expeditions were undertaken to find other individuals, but they were not crowned with success. In 2003, another similar specimen was found in the collection of the Vienna Museum of Natural History - from Madagascar. A mass survey of museums around the world did not give results - Kuntner was convinced that this is some kind of extinct species.
But in 2006, in the Tembe elephant reserve in South Africa, scientists found a male and two females that fit this description. After checking the information, the researchers came to the conclusion that this is a new species, and named it Nephila komaci, in honor of his deceased colleague Andrzej Komac. The maximum length of a female of this species is 39.7 cm. According to scientists, ladies can weave a web with a diameter of one meter, according to the BBC.
The previous record - 30 centimeters - was set by a formalized spider caught in 1938 in Laos. A rare museum piece was discovered by the German biologist Peter Jaeger, who examined the funds of the Paris Museum.
Orb-webs are a great danger. In October 2008, the whole world went around the footage taken in one of the city parks of the Australian city of Cairns - in which a spider of the orb weaving genus was eating a bird that had fallen into its net. In addition, many species of such spiders are poisonous.