Eight New Whip Spider Species Found in Brazil
Eight new whip spider species have been found in the Brazilian Amazon, almost doubling the number of known charinid whip spider species in Brazil, according to a study published in the journal PLOS ONE.
Scientists have thought the Amazon may be home to diverse whip spider species, but few have been described. The authors of this paper describe eight new species from the genus Charinus from the Brazilian Amazon: C. bichuetteae, C. bonaldoi, C. carajas, C. ferreus, C. guto, C. orientalis, C. brescoviti, and C. ricardoi.
The authors differentiated each new species by the presence or absence of median eyes, the number of leg IV basitibia pseudo-articles, and the shape of the female genitalia.
Brazil now has the largest diversity of Amblypygi (a small arachnid order) in the world, with 25 known species. But the authors found that half of the new species’ habitat is threatened by nearby human activities, like iron mining and flooding from the Belo Monte dam. The whip spider species are endemic to the Amazon Region, and the authors suggest conservation measures should be considered to preserve their increasingly threatened habitat.
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Spiders are one of the most beneficial bugs as they are the enemy of our enemies the mosquito. With the recent scare of disease transmitted by mosquitoes we should be less afraid of the spider. There is a reason God blanketed the world with an endless variety of spiders, and preserving their habitat has the added benefit of helping the rest of the environment.