Marc
Lallanilla, Assistant Editor
Date: 04 April
2013 Time: 11:48 AM ET
It's big, it's
hairy, and it's venomous.
The newest
spider to give arachnophobes the willies, a tarantula named Poecilotheria
rajaeihas been discovered on the island nation of Sri Lanka
With a leg
span of 8 inches (20 centimeters) and enough venom to kill mice, lizards, small
birds and snakes, according to Sky
News, the crawler is covered in subtle markings of gray, pink and daffodil
yellow.
"It can
be quite attractive, unless spiders freak you out," Peter Kirk, editor of
the British Tarantula Society journal, told the New
York Daily News.
Even the
scientists studying the spiders admit to being a little freaked out by its
size: "It was slightly smaller than the size of the plate we have dinner
on," Ranil Nanayakkara, co-founder of Sri Lanka
Tarantulas
have been the subject of considerable study lately: Researchers are still
trying to determine how or if tarantulas
use silk from the spigots on their feet. And in 2012, a scientist
reported discovering nine species of colorful Amazonian
tarantulas in Brazil
The newest
tarantula, as part of the Poecilotheria genus of arachnids (sometimes
called "Pokies" or tiger spiders), is a tree-dwelling spider. All the
Pokies, known for being colorful, fast and venomous, are found only in India and Sri Lanka
"They are
quite rare," Nanayakkara told Wired. "They prefer well-established
old trees, but due to deforestation the number have dwindled, and due to lack
of suitable habitat they enter old buildings."
It's not yet
known exactly how rare the newly discovered tarantula is, but there's some
concern that habitat destruction is causing their number to dwindle.
Additionally, northern Sri
Lanka
"It
demonstrates that wildlife continues to survive whilst we are in the throes of
conflict and that they can adapt to its changing environment," Kirk told
Sky News, "but … we risk destroying the habitats of species new to science
and condemning them to extinction before they are even discovered."
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