By: Shaileyi Singhania
MUMBAI: A new jumping
spider species
discovered in Aarey Colony and has been named 'Jerzego sunillimaye'. It was first seen by Rajesh Sanap, of National Centre for Biological Sciences, in 2016.
After research, when the species could not be identified, a further study was done by Sanap, Anuradha Joglekar, and Dr. John Caleb of Zoological Survey of India.
Since, initially, only the female of this species was to be found, it was imperative that these biologists keep going till the males were found to study the species well. Another factor that complicated this study was that mere taxonomic comparisons were not enough to declare a new species; and in fact, the spiders' life histories had to be studied thoroughly.
A paper was released detailing the
spider
species' characteristics. The species has been named to honour Sunil Limaye, additional principal chief conservator of forests who has done his bit for flora and fauna.