Hermit crab

Aquatic scientific names in the news …

Hermit crab

A rare type of hermit crab has been rediscovered at a beach in Falmouth after a 30 year absence. The find at Castle Beach was made during a survey run by the Cornwall Wildlife Trust. The tiny crab, sometimes referred to as the Mediterranean hermit crab, scientific name Clibanarius erythropus, has not been recorded in Cornish waters since 1985.

Clibanarius erythropus

Image, Matt Slater

It is a rockpool species that grows up to a carapace length of 15 millimetres found mainly in warmer waters with a range including the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, and the Eastern Atlantic from the Azores to Brittany, the Channel Islands and as far north as the south of Cornwall.

Local marine experts said that in the past the species had been occasionally found on the south coast of Cornwall but had virtually disappeared since the Torrey Canyon oil spill in 1967, and that the reappearance may mean that Cornwall’s marine life has now fully recovered from the environmental disaster.

Clibanarius erythropus (Latreille, 1818)

Etymology.

Clibanarius – Latin, a soldier clad in mail, a cuirassier. Likely alluding to the gastropod shell used by the crab for shelter.

erythropus – Greek, erythro-, eruthros (ερυθρος), red; -pus, pous (πυος), foot – with red feet, red-footed, red-legged.

Fishing spider

Aquatic scientific names in the news …

Fishing spider

The discovery of a new species of Fishing spider was announced at the ninth annual World Science Festival, Brisbane, Australia (9-13 March 2016).

Fishing spiders are semi-aquatic spiders that hunt by waiting at the edge of a pool or stream, resting six of their eight legs on the surface of the water, waiting for vibrations announcing the presence of their prey, a procedure that relies on the waves created from something landing on the water to indicate movement. Along with insects their prey can include fish, tadpoles, and even cane toads; when they detect the ripples from prey, they run across the surface to it and subdue it using their claw-tipped forelegs, then dive under the water and carry it back to shore to eat.

fishing spiderBrian Greene with Dolomedes briangreenei (image: Chris Hyde)

The newly discovered spider is native to freshwater streams around Brisbane. There are around 100 species of spider in the genus Dolomedes, different species can be found around the world in North America, Europe, and New Zealand as well as Australia, and with the exception of one tree-dwelling species they all employ the same method of hunting with the water surface serving the same function as a web does for other spiders.

Dolomedes briangreenei (Raven, 2016)

Etymology.

Dolomedes  – Greek, dolomhdhs (δολομηδης), wily, crafty; alluding to its method of hunting for prey..

briangreenei  – Latinized name. Honouring Brian Greene, a leading theoretical physicist and co-founder of the World Science Festival, who said, “With the announcement last month of humankind’s first detection of gravitational waves, ripples on the surface of space and time, I am particularly honored to be so closely associated with a spider that has its own deep affinity for waves.”