- NET Web Desk
Two new underground spider species – Gravelyia boro and Dexippus kleini have recently been discovered in the Jharbari range of western Assam’s Chirang Reserve Forest, Assam.
The two spiders have been found from Bodoland Territorial Region. And Gravelyia boro is named after the Bodo community.
Gravelyia boro is the burrow spider, newly discovered.
While, Dexippus kleini is an oriental jumping spider. It has been recorded for the first time after it was originally described 129 years ago by Swedish arachnologist, Tord Tamerlan Teodor Thorell.
The spider was discovered by Tord about 2,600 km away in Sumatra.
Gravelyia boro belongs to the Nemesiidae family comprising of 184 species worldwide.
Dexippus kleini is a member of Salticidae, the largest family of all spiders on earth.
Assistant Professor Dulur Brahma and research scholar Paris Basumatary, from Bodoland University’s Department of Zoology, have authored the studies.
“The name of the burrow spider has been derived from the Bodo community, one of the largest ethnolinguistic groups in Assam and predominantly inhabiting the area where the new species of spider was recorded,” – Dr. Brahma told The Hindu.
John T.D. Caleb of Zoological Survey of India corresponded for the paper on the jumping spider.
The burrow spider lives underground, about 10-15 cm below the sandy-loamy surface. It has an opening upto 1 cm wide were under the cover of some herbs and shrubs.
Meanwhile, the jumping spider is a slow mover but capable of jumping up to 25 mm in length to hunt its prey.
These two spiders have been described in the latest issue of Acta Arachnologica published by the Arachnological Society of Japan.
