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Ahmedabad spiderman names newly discovered species after Sachin Tendulkar

AHMEDABAD: Dhruv Prajapati, a junior researcher with the Gujarat Ecological Education & Research (GEER) Foundation, has recently discovered two new species of spiders. He said the two new species belong to the Indomarengo and Marengo genus of Asian jumping spiders. The findings of his study have been published in the September issue of a Russian journal, “Arthropoda Selecta”.




“The one I discovered has been named Marengo sachintendulkar and was found in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Gujarat,” said Prajapati, who is pursuing a PhD in spider taxonomy. “Another spider species I discovered was also an Asian jumping spider from the Indomarengo genus which was found in Kerala. It has been named Indomarengo Chavarapatera.”

Prajapati said: “I collected the specimens of Marengo sachintendulkar in 2015, but the research and identification work was completed in 2017.” He went on to say: “Indomarengo chavarapatera specimen was collected by my colleague. However, I continued the work of identification and research which also concluded in 2017.”

Prajapati christened the two species of spiders after people who inspired him. “I named Marengo sachintendulkar because Sachin happens to be my favourite cricketer,” he said. “Another name is inspired by Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara who was a crusader in creating awareness about education in Kerala.”

Prajapati’s discovery of the two flat-bodied spiders has been included in the World Spider Catalogue. As part of his postgraduation in zoology from Gujarat University , Prajapati had documented 78 unique species of spiders found on the varsity’s campus alone.

Prajapati has been conducting studies for identifying spiders from time to time. “The first thing that is distinctive about spiders is their eyes,” he said. “This time, during the study we used an electron microscope to study their legs, body shape, the patterns on their heads, reproductive organs, the hair on their body and their structures. This is compared with a standardized database based on which the unique species were identified.” He said there are about 48,000 types of spiders found worldwide, spread across 120 families.

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