Wednesday, March 20, 2019

The Stormtrooper spiders

Scientists have placed four newly discovered species of tropical spider in a new genus, Stormtropis - stormtrooper.  They are orange-ish rather than white, but they are almost impossible to tell apart, hence the name.  (Alas, none of these species have a chrome phase that could be named for Captain Phasma.)  It is not known yet whether these spiders have any special problems with accuracy when they strike at prey. 

This isn't the first species named from Star Wars, and surely will not be the last. This article counts 9 so far. An example is the weevil Trigonopterus chewbacca from New Zealand, which is not tall by any standards but has scales that look a little like brown fur.  An extinct giraffe ancestor whose horns reminded someone of Queen Amidala's hair was described in 2015 as reminded paleontologists of Queen Padmé Amidala's "swooping headgear," leading them to name their discovery Xenokeryx amidalae.  

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