If you would like to meet a new species of tarantula spider that is fond of violence and gets "close and personal with victims", then drop into the Sierra Nevada desert. Experts from universities in Colombia and Uruguay found an interesting guy here.
They have given it a nice name too---Kankuamo marquezi, after this country's Nobel Prize-winning author, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It's "family" name, Kankuamo, is named after threatened indigenous people in this area.
The males were found having unique genitalia, which led experts to the conclusion that the spiders are from a different genus, raising questions about the evolutionary pressures behind the spikes.
This terrifying four-inch tarantula, which can show you poisonous hairs protruding from its body, is scurrying in the mountains of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta on Colombia's Caribbean coast.
Other poisonous tarantulas operate by launching poisonous hairs from their backside, while this one's stinging hairs are not thrown but lead to irritating itches when they are touched. The spider likes to throw jabs and the urticating hairs can get inside you.
"Urticating hairs are used as a defense against natural enemies. These hairs are different from hairs covering the body of tarantulas because they have a penetrating tip, which allows the hair to embed in the skin or mucous membranes and cause irritation," biologist from the University of the Republic in Uruguay, Carlos Perafán said.
The research was published in the journal ZooKeys.
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