This Newly found out Parasite Looks Like a String of Pear...

What’s Happening

Real talk: Learn more about a parasitic spider mite found out in Brazil, the second of the genus ever described.

Huntsman spiders of the family Sparassidae are found throughout Brazil. While adults can grow to large sizes, with legspans of up to six inches, juvenile spiders are only a few millimeters long. (yes, really)

This may explain why a new species, growing from the necks of some young Huntsman spiders in an institute archive in Brazil, went undiscovered for so long.

The Details

It was only through careful analysis that researchers at the Butantan Institute in São Paulo, Brazil, noticed that one young Huntsman in their Zoological collection was carrying some unwanted cargo. They realized the spider was “wearing” a ring of spheres around its neck, like lumpy jewelry.

Now, the research team has published a paper revealing that this “necklace” was made from the larvae of an entirely new species. The paper was published in the International Journal of Acarology .

Why This Matters

: This Cat Parasite Can Infect Humans, and You Can Get It From Litter Boxes or Unwashed Veggies Parasites Don’t Spare Spiders Spiders, like many animals, are targeted . These parasites can be scary — some parasitic fungi turn infected spiders into zombies their nervous system — but others are just out for a free meal. Spider-parasitic mite larvae, like those from the genus Araneothrombium, grow fat on fluids drained from spider bodies.

This could have implications for future research in this area.

Key Takeaways

• This genus was first described in Costa Rica in 2017.
• Spider-parasite mites are difficult to detect as adults.
• Despite the country’s vast spider ecology, there has only been one previous identification of a spider-parasite mite in Brazil.

The Bottom Line

“For this group of mites, it isn’t uncommon to know many parasitic species only through their larvae, since in adulthood they become free-living predators, living in the soil and feeding on small insects and even other mites, which makes them difficult to find,” dropped Ricardo Bassini-Silva, a researcher and curator of the Acarological Collection at the Butantan Institute, who co-authored the paper, in a press release . Despite the country’s vast spider ecology, there has only been one previous identification of a spider-parasite mite in Brazil.

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