How many spiders are named after St. Martin? At least one! This wall crab spider was described as a new species based on specimens from St. Martin, and named Selenops souliga. Souliga (also spelled many other ways) is the Arawak name for St. Martin, and means land of salt. (Apparently a Father Breton actually recorded four Arawak names for St. Martin, St. Barth’s, Anguilla and Saba, but didn’t actually say which one was which, so the spider is at least intended to be named after St. Martin.)
These spiders are incredibly flat and can usually be found beneath stones or tree bark. Their egg sac, which you can see here, is also very flat. Thanks to renowned Caribbean arachnologist Patrick Maréchal for telling me about this species.
Thanks to Renee Soto for backing the project yesterday. If you don’t know what “the project” is, it’s a project on Kickstarter where we are raising funds to finance a printing of the all-new 2nd edition of the wildlife guide. Backers get rewards, which now include limited-edition, autographed prints of wildlife photos from the book.
We can still really use your help, so check out the project page here.
