Three New Tarantula Species Discovered in Northern Argentina
Posted on May 7, 2014
Three new species of tarantulas have been discovered in northern Argentina. The tarantulas were discovered by scientists from Universidad de La Republica, Uruguay. They belong to the submfamily Theraphosinae. Melloleitaoina yupanqui, one of the newly discovered species, is pictured above and Melloleitaoina crassifemur is pictured below.
The names of the new species where inspired by the region in Argentina where they were found. Melloleitaoina mutquina has its name derived from the specific epithet mutquina, a noun which means place or thing to smell in the Quichua language. The name refers to the locality of Mutquin, where this species is found and denotes the aroma of the flora of the region that emerges after rain. M. uru was inspired an ancient legend Quichua. The legend, about the Inca princess Uru, was transformed by the gods into a spider and forced to endlessly work weaving because of her whims and bad government. The third new species, M. yupanqui, was named to honor Argentine musician of folklore Atahualpa Yupanqui, pseudonym of Hector Roberto Chavero Aramburu.
The scientists note that female tarantulas can live for 15 to 30 years, which helps make them preferred pet for spider lovers.
A research paper on the tarantulas was published here in ZooKeys.
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