- According to the study published in the Journal of Natural History, the jumping spider belonging to the genus Habrocestum was found in Ernakulam’s Illithodu forests, Kerala. This group of jumping spiders mostly occur in Eurasia and Africa, has been spotted for the first time in India.
- It was spotted by a arachnologists from ’s Sacred Heart College, Thevara. The team also found that is a species new to science.
- Comparisons with studies of European Habrocestum spiders revealed that the spiders from Illithode are a new species altogether, for they had distinctly different reproductive organs.
- The spider also has a single long spine on the underside of both its first legs, and this gave it its scientific name Habrocestumlongispinum (after Latin ‘longe’ meaning long and ‘spinae’ for spine). (Source: The Hindu)
