Onyx, Lacteus: Two new jumping spiders found in Aarey milk colony

A team of researchers have discovered two extremely small-sized jumping spiders at Aarey Milk Colony, Goregaon. In fact what makes this discovery fascinating apart from Aarey’s biodiversity is the fact that for the first time a jumping spider of an African genus is being reported from Mumbai.

The new species Langelurillus onyx is a 4.67mm shiny black-coloured spider whose cephalothorax (fused head and thorax) is bordered with a band of white hair resembling ‘oxide mineral’ due to which the researchers chose to name it onyx, meanwhile the other species Langelurillus lacteus, which is even smaller — measuring 4.03mm  — and has a milky white band of hair behind the anterior eyes, and thus the name lacteus.

The discovery by researchers Rajesh Sanap, Anuradha Joglekar, Dhruv Prajapati and John Caleb was published on September 6 in Zootaxa — a peer-reviewed scientific mega journal for animal taxonomists.

“Onyx is found in Gujarat as well as Maharashtra while lacteus is only reported in Mumbai,” informed Sanap an Andheri-based researcher who has been documenting the biodiversity of Aarey.

According to Sanap the entire discovery was a challenge right from the start as it’s not easy to spot a spider whose mature adult is just 4mm.

“It was while doing macro photography we came across these tiny spiders jumping around leaf litter and seeing them it was clear that they were different, thus we began the identification process,” said Sanap who contacted John Caleb, Research Associate at the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI). It was Caleb who verified that while these two spiders were new species they belonged to a spider of genus Langelurillus, which were from Africa after discussion and consultation with several expert archaeologists.

As per the team involved in the research, spiders are microhabitat specialists and help in regulating insect populations as well as are good indicators of the health of the ecosystem.

“The two species were found in the jungle floor of the Aarey milk colony sharing the same habitat. These are strictly ground dwellers and are found among dry leaf litter and thrive during the regular cycle of seasons without any potential risk. However sudden disturbances like change in habitat structure will greatly affect the species, bringing a decline in population and also may lead to completely wiping it out from the region,” informed Caleb adding that these are tiny but important species in terms of conservation where we not only preserve the habitat but also offer chance for other species which inter-depend on each other a greater chance for survival.

“Over a past few years, Aarey colony has been in constant focus including the fact that whether it was a forest or not, infact many research have provided evidence of remarkable biodiversity that exists in this green pocket of the city. Several new species have been discovered or rediscovered from Aarey thus indicating how much little we know about the rich biodiversity of Aarey and if it's destroyed we would lose a treasure without even knowing what we had,” said Joglekar.