Huge arachnid with leg span of 33 cm found in Laotian cave

An enormous, new, leggy arachnid with a leg span just over 13 inches (33 centimeters) has been found lurking in the caves of the Southeast Asian nation of Laos.

The creature is a type of harvestmen, a group of arachnids colloquially called "daddy longlegs" and frequently mistaken for spiders. (The two animals are related, as both are types of arachnids.)

The species hasn't previously been described, according to a release announcing the finding.

The arachnid's super-long legs make it one of the largest harvestmen ever found. The record-holding species, from South America, has a leg span of 13.4 inches (34 cm), according to the statement.

The creature was discovered by Peter Jäger, an arachnologist at the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt, Germany. Jäger found the creature recently while in Laos to film a TV show, collecting spiders and arachnids in between shots.

After failing to identify the species himself, Jäger enlisted the help of a harvestmen expert who couldn't find any published description of the animal.

The researchers haven't named the new species yet, and hope to conduct a study of it to pinpoint its place in the harvestmen's evolutionary family tree.


Source: MSNBC

Three New Arthropod Species Have Been Found in the Maestrazgo Caves in Teruel

Pygmarrhopalites maestrazgoensis

A team of scientists from the University of Navarra and the Catalan Association of Biospeleology have discovered three new collembolan species in the Maestrazgo caves in Teruel, Spain. Their description has been published in the Zootaxa journal. These minute animals belong to one of the most ancient animal species on the planet.

The Maestrazgo caves in Teruel are located in a region of the Iberian Range where fauna has not been the subject of much study. It is a very isolated region since its average altitude is between 1,550 m and 2,000 m asl and its climate can be described as "almost extreme" experiencing temperatures of between -40°C and -25°C. Inside the caves, however, the temperatures remain constant at between 5°C and 11°C.