A slew of academics from the likes of Eskişehir Technical University, Manisa Celal Bayar University and Erzincan Binali Yıldırım University, have been working on a spider species in Eskişehir, which they have actually named after two years.
A different type of spider with a trapdoor was found in the Kalabak and Tandır neighborhoods of Eskişehir. After about two years of work, the spider was named "Brachythele zonsteini." The new species entered the world literature by being published in an international peer-reviewed journal called Arthropoda Selecta.
Associate professor Recep Sulhi Özkütük told Anadolu Agency (AA) that there were 1,247 spider species belonging to 53 families in Turkey, and new ones have been added to them.
"The newly identified species was collected from a few places in Eskişehir. We came across this species in the Kalabak and Tandır neighborhoods. We collected samples in field studies. Later, these samples were separated. All of these species were reviewed. After that, we separated different spiders. We examined the studies conducted around the world," Özkütük said while he explained their process.
"After about two years of study, we decided that it was a new species. After making diagnoses, taking photographs and a literature review, it was published in an international peer-reviewed journal called Arthropoda Selecta. We named this species 'Brachythele zonsteini.' We thought it would be a fitting name for the spider in honor of the arachnologist we worked with before, Sergei Zonstein."
Özkütük reported that the "Brachythele zonsteini" species is also called the "trapper spider" because it lives underground. He stated that the species digs a nest, which they cover with a net, then creates a cover for the exit point on the surface.
"He closes the cover over the nest so that it is almost impossible to see from the outside. With the nets laid around the cover, it senses when there is any prey that passes nearby, and hunts by going out. It was discovered in Eskişehir for the first time in the world."