A group of arachnologists from Kerala University and Loyola College, Chennai, have identified two new spider species from the Shendurney Wildlife Sanctuary that forms part of the Western Ghats.
A team of researchers comprising Asima A. and Nishi Babu of the Zoology department of Kerala University, department head G. Prasad, and John T.D. Caleb of Loyola College, discovered Habrocestum shendurneyensis and Habrocestum kerala that belong to the HabrocestumSimon genus of jumping spiders.
The findings that were recorded during expeditions held in and near Kulathupuzha in June 2021 have been published in the peer-reviewed journal Arthopodo Selecta.
According to Prof. Prasad, only one species that belongs to the genus had been previously recorded in India: Habrocestum longispinum that had been described in Ernakulam’s Illithodu forests.
Jumping spiders belong to the genus HabrocestumSimon that is represented by 49 species of which 23 species are from Africa, 27 in Eurasia (three species are found in both regions), and one each in Western Australia and Solomon Island.
The males of both species exhibited distinctive chevron patterns on their abdomens. H. kerala was found to have white bands on the lateral side of the thorax and the fovea (a short groove that is visible in the centre of the upper surface of carapace). The species has two spots above and below the posterior lateral eyes.
Prof. Prasad emphasised on the need for an in-depth ecological research to understand how the continental drift theory contributed to the distribution of such species in different places.
