Are you from the gang that simply dreads spiders and is apprehensive every time you find yourself in an environment where one of those animals might be lurking? In this case you will not be happy to hear that a new species of spider has been discovered - one that can go completely unnoticed among the vegetation as it is a camouflaged leaf spider. See below:

This half burnt looking leaf is a spider!

The good news is that this species was found far away from Brazilian forests and, as far as we know, it does not exist here in our country! But only to the best of our knowledge ... According to Carrie Arnold of National Geographic, the spider was randomly identified by arachnology expert Matjaz Kuntner as he explored a rainforest in southern China called Yunnan in search of particular specimens. night habits.

Camouflage

According to Carrie, Matjaz believes it is a spider in the Araneidae family, made up of approximately 3, 000 species and whose majority of limbs construct circular spiral-shaped webs - where individuals settle down and upside down. However, although these animals are already known to scientists, the specimen found in China seems to be the first to mimic the appearance of a leaf.

Look at the spider - clicked in the lab

Scientists are still evaluating the spider discovered in Yunnan, but have noted that it uses its web to attach leaves to tree branches and then uses these structures as hiding places. Researchers are unsure why arachnids do this, but they suspect that the ruse may be used to camouflage their predators or to prevent spiders from being seen by their prey.

Rare species

According to Mindy Weisberger of the Live Science portal, Matjaz stumbled upon the spider in 2011 while searching for specimens of other species in Yunnan. He and his team found the individual - a female - on a branch full of dry leaves, and noted that he had a healthy green leaf-like back, a dead-leaf-like lower body, and the animal still counted. with a structure that looked like a stalk.

Efficient Camouflage

The researchers also noted that the leaves surrounding the spider were tied to gain through their web, probably to aid in camouflage - but the team still needs to conduct more observations to confirm this behavior. According to Mindy, after searching for more specimens over the course of two weeks, scientists were able to find a young male hiding in a web.

Given the difficulty of finding more of these spiders, the team also decided to run museums around the world to see if any of them had specimens in their collections. Only one similar animal was found - a female that was collected in Vietnam - but the researchers believe it is a different species.

It was then that scientists realized they had come across a new - and apparently rare - species of spider. The researchers also concluded that the camouflage of the animal is very efficient, after all, this aspect, combined with the nocturnal and discreet habits of the animal, allowed him to spend all this time without being discovered by anyone.