Spider 'Desis bobmarleyi' named on Bob Marley’s song 'High Tide or Low Tide'

Scientists have discovered a

water-adapted species of spiders and named it after Jamaican

reggae legend Bob Marley.

                In 2009, the sea along the coastline of Queensland in

Australia receded to such an extent that it exposed a

population of spiders.

                Researchers associated their emergence with Marley's song

"High Tide or Low Tide".

                In a study published in the journal Evolutionary

Systematics, researchers from Queensland Museum in Australia

and University of Hamburg in Germany described the intertidal

spider.

                Unlike the spiders which people are familiar with, the

intertidal species have adapted to the underwater life by

hiding in barnacle shells, corals or kelp holdfast during high

tide.

                To breathe, they build air chambers from silk. Once the

sea water recedes, though, they are out and about hunting

small invertebrates that roam the surfaces of the nearby

rocks, corals and plants.

                The new species, listed under the scientific name of

Desis bobmarleyi, is described based on male and female

specimens spotted and collected from brain coral.

                Both sexes are characterised by predominantly red-brown

colours, while their legs are orange-brown and covered with a

dense layer of long, thin and dark grey hair-like structures.

                The females appear to be larger in size with the studied

specimen measuring nearly nine millimetres, whereas the male

was about six millimetres long.

                While the exact distribution range of the newly described

species remains unknown, it is currently recorded from the

intertidal zones of the Great Barrier Reef on the north-

eastern coast of Queensland.

                "The song 'High Tide or Low Tide' promotes love and

friendship through all struggles of life," researchers said.

                "It is his music that aided a field trip to Port Douglas

in coastal Queensland, Australia, to collect spiders with a

highly unique biology," they said.