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An quick wanderer that somersaults down sand dunes has been discovered in the deserts of Morocco . The dancing arachnid has even been nicknamed the " flic - flac spider " for its gymnastic dexterity and has served as inspiration for a creepy - crawly robot .
Researchers officially named the wanderer gymnastCebrennus rechenbergiafter Ingo Rechenberg , a scientist from Berlin who discovered the fauna on a misstep to Morocco five eld ago .
" I caught the spider by bridge player , and I took it to my automobile — and in the dawn , I attempt to takea good photograph of the spider , " Rechenberg said , tote up that he then took the spider with him to Germany and show it to arachnologist Peter Jäger , who determined that the animal was a new specie .
Cebrennus rechenbergilooks similar to another spider coinage , Cebrennus villosus , which lives in Tunisia . Jäger distinguishedC. rechenbergifrom its Tunisian cousin by look at minute departure in thesex organ of the spiders .
" However , the unparalleled musical mode of locomotion also serves as a criterion to distinguish the mintage , " Jäger allege in a affirmation .
The wanderer propels itself off the ground and moves its legs in a flic - flac motion to go acclivitous , downhill or on point ground . On the other hand , its Tunisian relative move only by rolling its body down sand sand dune . In fact , the flic - flac moves actuate the spider across the sand at some 6.5 feet per second ( 2 meter per instant ) , which is double as fast as its walking speed . [ In Photos : New Spider Species Cartwheels Down Sand Dunes ]
C. rechenbergiis nocturnal and lives in the Erg Chebbi desert in southeast Morocco , close to the Algerian border . To protect itself from the sunlight and vulture , the brute weaves tubelike " towers " in the sand that are defend together by silk thread .
enliven by the spider ’s unusual motion mechanism , Rechenberg , a bionics expert , build up a 10 - inch - foresightful ( 25 centimeters ) model of a spider golem . The automaton — distinguish Tabbot after " Tabacha , " which means wanderer in the Berber language — can move by both walking and turning somersaults , just like the wight it ’s modeled after .
" We tried to simulate the movement of the spider " while build the theoretical account , Rechenberg told Live Science .
The field describing the spider species was published April 17 in the journal Zootaxa .
