Newly-Discovered Tarantula Named after Gabriel Garcia Marquez

A group of scientists discovered a new kind of tarantula in the northern rain forests of Colombia that they decided to baptize "Kankuamo marquezi," as a tribute to internationally-recognized Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, stated a study issued June 29 in the journal Zookeys.

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"Kankuamo is a noun in apposition and refers to the Indigenous people of the Chibcha family from the Caribbean region of Colombia, which inhabits the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, whose language and culture are endangered," explained the scientists, led by Uruguayan arachnologist Carlos Perafan.

"The specific epithet is a noun in genitive in honor of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who was a renowned Colombian writer, considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century, and awarded the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature for 'One Hundred years of Solitude'."

Covered in an entirely new type of hair, it is not only a new species but also a new genus—the group above species. The hair is meant to protect the tarantula against predators by attacking them.

"Those barbed hairs would mean that if a cane toad seized (the tarantula), it would promptly spit it out," says Andrew Smith, a British tarantula researcher not involved in the study.