Desert creature — a ‘dynamic’ predator — found near its eggs. It’s a new species

In a desert of northwestern India, a “dynamic” predator hunted its prey. Nearby, scientists watched the eight-eyed creature’s attack unfolding and something about the animal caught their attention.

Researchers ventured into the Thar Desert in Rajasthan on a wildlife survey in 2022, according to a study published Dec. 21 in the journal Zootaxa. Despite its “inhospitable” landscape, the desert has a “relatively high diversity of spiders.”

While looking at a “residential wall,” researchers found “a large number” of spiders they didn’t recognize. They collected three of the spiders and, taking a closer look, realized they’d discovered a new species: Oecobius thar, or the Thar Desert wall spider.

Thar Desert wall spiders are small, only reaching about a tenth of an inch in length, researchers said. They have dark brown bodies with eight eyes and eight legs.

Photos show some Thar Desert wall spiders. Male spiders have dark brown striped legs while female spiders have few to no stripes on their legs.

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Thar Desert wall spiders seem to prefer living near humans, the study said. Female spiders were seen near “a cluster of eggs” protected by “small sheet webs.”

Female Thar Desert wall spiders were also seen using a “dynamic strategy” to hunt ants and flies. Researchers saw the females “swiftly (maneuvering) around their prey and utilizing a continuous silk-spinning technique to entrap and immobilize the target.” Other spider species have been observed using a similar hunting strategy.

Researchers said they named the new species after the Thar Desert, the area where the spider was discovered and the only area where it has been found so far. The desert is in Rajasthan, near the India-Pakistan border, and about 450 miles southwest of New Delhi.

The new species was identified by its genitalia and other subtle physical features, the study said. Researchers did not provide a DNA analysis of the new species.

The research team included Rishikesh Tripathi, Ambalaparambil Sudhikumar and Danniella Sherwood.

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