Tura, April 3: A research team from the southern part of the country, which was in the state of Meghalaya for over 3 months in the early part of 2022 (February and April), has discovered four species of spiders in the state of Meghalaya during their recent research.
Interestingly, the discoveries were made in the remote corners of the state, with two species being found in South Garo Hills and another in the district of South West Khasi Hills – two districts with huge forest cover.
The findings of the research team have recently been published in a scientific journal dedicated jumping spiders.
Of the three new species of jumping spiders discovered from the Meghalaya one is named after the Garo freedom fighter Togan Nengminza Sangma (Habrocestum togansangmai). This species was discovered in the SWKH district and is said to inhabit the riverine areas of both SWKH and SGH. This spider species was discovered in the village of Nongnah in the district of SWKH.
Further the team discovered another species of the same jumping spider from the village of Eman Asakgre and named it Habrocestum emanasakgrensis and the last one was discovered near the Imilchang waterfall, again in SGH and named after the waterfall where it was discovered, Habrocestum imilchang. Both the above mentioned spiders are endemic to only South Garo Hills as per the findings of the research team.
These were discovered by Gautam Kadam and Rishikesh Tripathi biologist from Maharashtra.
Another genus of spider discovered by the research team was the selenopid spider, Siamspinops garoensis and was named after Garo hills. It was published in an international journal Zootaxa by researchers Pradeep Sankaran, Gautam Kadam, Ambalaparambil V. Sudhikumar and Rishikesh Tripathi.
Speaking on the discovery and their publication of their findings, biologist Gautam Kadam said that Meghalaya was one of the least explored for spider fauna and there was scope for more species discoveries in the future if more research was undertaken.
The jumping spiders were discovered during a spider survey conducted in Garo and Khasi hills. All the newly discovered species inhabits ever green forests near riverine areas and small streams.
“All these species are ground dwellers mainly found in leaf letters. It is the first report of this genus from Northeast region of India. Presently Habrocestum includes 55 species with a largely Afroeurasian distribution. With the discovery of the 3 new species, the number of such jumping spiders found in India has risen to 7,” added the biologist.
Discovery of these three new species from Meghalaya has been published in the latest volume of PECKHAMIA, an international scientific journal dedicated to jumping spiders.