Marengo Sachintendulkar: Newly discovered spider species named after cricketer

Dhruv Prajapati, a junior researcher pursuing a PhD in spider taxonomy with Gujarat Ecological Education & Research (GEER) Foundation, recently discovered two new species of spiders. He has named one of the species as Marengo sachintendulkar after Indian crickter Sachin Tendulkar and other as Indomarengo Chavarapatera which is inspired by Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara who was a campaigned towards creating awareness about education in Kerala.

The findings of his study have been published in September issue of ‘Arthropoda Selecta’, a Russian journal. His discovery of two flat-bodied spiders has been included in World Spider Catalogue also. As part of his postgraduation in zoology from Gujarat University, he had documented 78 unique species of spiders found on the varsity’s campus alone.

Key Highlights of Research

The two new species belong to Indomarengo genus and Marengo genus of Asian jumping spiders.

Marengo sachintendulkar: It was found in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Gujarat. He collected the specimens of this species in 2015, but the research and identification work was completed in 2017.”

Indomarengo Chavarapatera: It was found in Kerala. Its specimen was collected by his colleague, however he continued the work of identification and research which also concluded in 2017.

There are nearly 48,000 types of spiders found worldwide, spread across 120 families.

Month: Current Affairs - November, 2019