New species of cave dwelling spiders identified

Scientists have identified a new species of large cave-dwelling spiders inhabiting a Mexican mountain range. The Sierra Cacachilas wandering spider named Califorctenus cacachilensis has thick, fang-like structures, hairy, inch-long body and legs stretching four inches across, researchers said. Researchers, including those from San Diego Natural History Museum in the US, discovered the spider on a collaborative research expedition in 2013 into a small mountain range outside of La Paz in Baja California Sur, Mexico. Four years later, after careful documentation and peer- review, researchers have deemed the species and genus as a new one.

Califorctenus cacachilensis is in the same group of spiders (Family Ctenidae) as the notoriously highly venomous Brazilian wandering spider, researchers said.

"Almost all spiders are venomous, but very few are dangerous to humans. I got bit while handling a live specimen of Califorctenus cacachilensis and I am still alive," said Jim Berrian, field entomologist at the San Diego Natural History Museum.

"I think it is a really pretty spider. The head and legs are kind of a chocolate brown. The abdomen is a dull yellow. And it's kind of plain, but very striking," Berrian was quoted as saying by 'Phys.org'. "The first evidence we found of this species was a shed exoskeleton in the cracks of a rock overhang. The exoskeleton was abnormally big and I could tell by the eye pattern that it was in a group of spiders, wandering spiders from the Family Ctenidae, with very few species in Baja California Sur," he said. The findings were published in the journal Zootaxa.