A new species of tarantula has been found in Sri Lanka and is only the second species within the Chilobrachys genus to be found in the country in 126 years.
The tarantula, Chilobrachys jonitriantisvansicklei, named after Joni Triantis Van Sickle, the co-founder of the Colorado-based conservation Idea Wild, was found in a patch of forest in the South Asia country spanning 857 acres, about the same size as New York City’s Central Park, according to a paper published in the British Tarantula Society Journal.
The females of the species are what initially caught biologist Ranil Nanayakkara’s eye. Females, once lured out of their burrows, were noted as having a “metallic turquoise-blue sheen on all four legs,” as well as on its hard upper shell and abdomen.
Read more HERE
