They are mainly found in the tropics, are nocturnal, lead a nomadic life without a permanent home and they do not spin webs but actively hunt prey.
The most famous and infamous member of the family is probably the Brazilian wanderer spider, one of the few spiders whose bite can be fatal to a human. The Brazilian wandering spider is one of the so-called banana spiders because it lives in trees and can survive in plantations. As a result, she sometimes ends up in a banana box that is then shipped elsewhere in the world.
Within that family of comb spiders, arachnologist Peter Jäger of the Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum Frankfurt has now discovered a new genus or genus.
“When I was researching species from a mainly Asian lineage in this family, I quickly realized that they couldn’t be classified into a pre-existing genus,” he said. “I then decided to dedicate the new gender to David Bowie and simply named it Bowie.”
–
