Good news for biodiversity, anxiety for arachnophobes. A curious discovery was made by researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA). They recently got their hands on seven new species of spiders in caves in northern Israel, Geo reports.
Their study was published in the journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution and spotted by the British media Phys.org. We learn that these are precisely funnel web spiders (Agelenidae, Tegenaria) that live only in wrens. Their characteristics are very dependent on their environment where the luminosity is low, where the flora is almost non-existent and where limestone is abundant.
Blind spiders
These animals thus benefit from an exceptional adaptation to life in the dark. The spiders found at the entrance of the caves were partially blind, the others, discovered further in the cavities, were completely blind. "One of the surprising results of the study shows that the new species are, from an evolutionary point of view, closer to cave species in the Mediterranean regions of southern Europe, than to species living near them at the entrance to caves in Israel," says Efrat Gavish-Regev, a researcher at Hebrew University and one of the leaders of the study.
These arachnids developed adaptations to life, unlike their ancestors who lived outside caves and perished as a result of global warming. "We need to protect Israel's unique nature, preserve its underground systems for the future, and further explore the processes that created these systems in the country," adds Prof. Dror Hawlena, who also participated in the study.
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