A new, massive tarantula the size of a person’s face was discovered in Sri Lanka, according to a report from Wired magazine and others.
The Poecilotheria rajaei spiders have a leg span of 8 inches across and dwell in trees near an old doctor’s residence at the hospital in Mankulam, located in the northern portion of the country.
Sky News reports that the spider has a distinctive pink band around its body.
Scientists with the Sri Lanka’s Biodiversity Education and Research group discovered the spider.
The tarantulas was originally spotted by villagers in Mankulam who killed a male specimen.
“They are quite rare,” researcher Ranil 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.”
Peter Kirk, with the British Tarantula Society, told Sky News: “Ranil has been working on these spiders since 2009 out in Sri Lanka and this is the first of what is thought to be a number of new species he has discovered in what was previously the inaccessible northern region of the island.”
The spider is venomous but it is not lethal to humans. It can kill small birds, rodents, and snakes.
For the past 25 years until a few years ago, Sri Lanka has been embroiled in a civil war that pitted government forces against rebel insurgents. Kirk noted that it is remarkable that the spiders survived.
Kirk said, “It demonstrates that wildlife continues to survive whilst we are in the throes of conflict and that they can adapt to its changing environment - but also highlights that we risk destroying the habitats of species new to science and condemning them to extinction before they are even discovered.”
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