Amanda De George, a nature lover, spotted the eight-eyed creature at her home months ago – but it wasn’t until June when it reappeared she managed to snap a photo. She shared pictures of the tiny 4mm long arachnid to a spider identification Facebook page with the caption ‘What is this?’. The creature’s striking blue face attracted the attention of a leading spider expert in Melbourne, who confirmed the species was unknown and asked her to capture it and send it to him for examination.
‘I thought it was incredibly beautiful with its bright blue face and eyes but didn’t realize how special it was,’ Ms. De George told. ‘By the time I was told it was a species new to science it was long gone. It took me three-and-a-half months of full-on searching to find another specimen. So that was the hard part! The capturing was easy!’ She eventually captured two of the creatures and put them inside containers filled with tissues to ship down to Joseph Schubert, a Museums Victoria taxonomist who specializes in jumping spiders. The spider was named Jotus karllagerfeldi due to its white and black appearance similar to the suit and dark sunglasses Mr. Lagerfeld often wore.
Post Your Comments