New hairy-legged, three-lipped, red-eyed sea spider species discovered

By Amarachi Orie, CNN

(CNN) — If the sight of a spider already makes your skin crawl, you might find the two sea spider species newly discovered by scientists even more unnerving.

Researchers in Canada discovered two previously unknown sea spider species during scuba dives, up to 18 meters (59 feet) deep, between September 2023 and August 2024 in the Salish Sea, which sits between the western Canadian province of British Columbia and the US state of Washington.

One of the species has long, curved spines that cover the spider’s lower legs, according to the study published Wednesday in the journal Organisms Diversity & Evolution. For that reason, it is named Callipallene pilosuspedes, with “pilosus” being the Latin for “hairy” and “pedes” meaning “feet.”

The creature, which has a slender trunk, also has red eyes, three lips at the opening of its triangular mouth and claws.

The species also sports “highly dexterous” ovigers — appendages that look like legs but are not used for walking — that “can function as grooming tools,” according to a statement Wednesday from the University of British Columbia (UBC), which conducted the study.

“Under a microscope, researchers observed the animal wrapping the appendages around its legs and using attached comb-like spines to clean itself,” the statement said.

In contrast to Callipallene pilosuspedes, the newly discovered Tanystylum kiixin species’ “egg-carrying limbs are much smaller and less dexterous, leaving the animal unable to groom itself effectively,” UBC said.

The “kiixin” in its name, pronounced “Kee-hin,” is derived from the sound of the waves crashing at the base of the site of an ancient indigenous village where the species was found, according to the study.

This spider sports an hourglass-shaped abdomen, black eyes and knob-like claws.

A parasite itself, the spider was “frequently” found to be “covered with tiny parasites of its own,” UBC added.

Overall, scientists have identified almost 1,400 species of sea spider, which originated around 500 million years ago, according to the study.

The marine arthropods can crawl on ocean floors or stroll on animals or plants, and some can even tread water. Their size can range from less than a centimeter (under 0.4 inches), to 70 centimeters (28 inches), UBC said.

The animals are not actually spiders but are related to spiders, as well as scorpions and horseshoe crabs, according to UBC. They have four trunk segments and four pairs of long legs, although they can have as many as 12 legs. Shallow-water species also often have four eyes.

Their mouths are usually larger than their bodies — and they use them to suck juices from soft-bodied invertebrates. Their digestive and reproductive systems branch to their legs, and males carry their eggs on a distinct pair of legs until they hatch.

The researchers of this study decided to describe shallow water sea spiders in the Salish Sea because only 17 species had been reliably documented there, despite the sea having rich marine biodiversity, according to the study.

“I was interested in how sea spiders are impacted by climate change and human disturbance, because marine invertebrates in the Salish Sea are particularly at-risk, and I couldn’t find anything,” lead study author and biologist Cormac Toler-Scott, who conducted the research as part of his master’s in zoology at UBC, said in the statement. “That’s largely because people don’t know much about what species exist here and what their lifestyle is.”

With the sea’s shoreline now “densely populated and rapidly developing,” the researchers noted that documenting the biodiversity in its waters is “an important step in identifying where conservation efforts will have the greatest impact” in addressing threats to the sea from human activity.

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