In September, a new species of spider was discovered in the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest region, close to Kooskia Idaho, by a team of researchers from the University of Idaho’s Entomology program.
The team was made up of doctoral student Arnau Calatayud-Mascarell, postdoctoral researcher Ethan Briggs and an associate professor from the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Chris Hamilton. Calatayud-Mascarell was working on his dissertation research on the distribution of spiders in the area, when they found the new species.
Calatayud-Mascarell’s spider was named the Hexura vandal as the official species name, after University of Idaho’s mascot, Joe Vandal. It has also been offered as a candidate for the state’s official spider.
The spider itself is rather interesting. The females are brown in color with a brown, fuzzy abdomen, a darker brown thorax that has a slight reddish tinge to it, two thick pincers and tan legs with two appendages sticking from the back of the abdomen.
The spider is known to inhabit “moist, coniferous habitats” but once a drier habitat is reached, there are none of these spiders living in it. The Idaho Vandal spider is visually distinctive from others in its genus, leading researchers to believe that the spider has been isolated for a long period of time.
“This species is an indicator of a unique, remnant habitat that’s found in Idaho and needs to be looked at more closely and monitored,” said Hamilton in a UI press release.
The spider discovered did not belong to the usual genus of spider that usually lives in Idaho, a genus called Microhexura. Microhexura spiders are most commonly found throughout the Pacific Northwest. The species that was found belonged to the genus Hexura. Only two species of Hexura spiders have been catalogued, native only to Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, Canada. However, the spider discovered by Arnau Calatayud-Mascarell belonged to the genus Hexura, and it was living in a section of forest along the Lochsa River.
Abigal Hale can be reached at [email protected]