A new species of spider has been discovered from Delhi's Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary. Interestingly, the 'jumping spider' has been named S. Jagannath due to its unique colour pattern which resembles Hindu deity Lord Jagannath's face.

The discovery has been made by a herpetologist and assistant professor at Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University and his team of students. Their finding has been published in the International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR) and endorsed by the World Spider Catalog(WSC) -the only such database, maintained by the Natural History Museum, Bern in Switzerland.

With this new finding, the count of spider species globally has gone up to 45,654. The number of this arachnid species in India is 1,684 (Keswani et. al., 2012). In Delhi, the Zoological Survey of India (researchers Biswas and Biswas) recorded 11 species in 1997. This list was updated by Dr Sanjay Keshari Das, the professor behind the latest discovery, to 24 in 2012.

Das, an assistant professor at University School of Environment Management, GGSIP University, informed MAIL TODAY: "Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary, by virtue of lying on the foot of the Aravalli hills, has some unique biodiversity elements. This spider, Stenaelurillus jagannathae, is one of them. We found it inhabiting leaf litter and decaying logs throughout the sanctuary, and it is amazing how it went unnoticed so long."

The male S. Jagannath is 3.75 millimetre in length while its female counterpart is almost double in size, 6.50 mm, as is common in the arachnid world. It has two large black eyes on the anterior, akin to the headlights of a car, typical of its 'Salticidae' spider family. Its genus is Stenaelurillus which has only 34 known species - 27 found in Africa and eight in Asia. The worldwide count of Stenaelurillus spider species is now 35, and in Asia it's nine.

"We particularly noticed this spider due to its unique colour pattern, three white spots on the abdomen and several white lines. Amusingly, it resembled Lord Jagannath's face and hence we named it after the deity. It has been recorded as S. Jagannath in the World Spider Catalogue," said Das. The spider, an active day-time predator, feeds on ants, mites, ticks and such other insects. It also runs very fast and is known to make long jumps, characteristic of 'Salticidae' spiders lending it the title 'jumping spider'.

Dr Sumit Dookia, another herpetologist at GGSIP University, commented: "In this age of climate change, when rare and precious species are going extinct, the discovery of a new spider species is indeed heartening." Das added: "It also proves that there is an urgent need of documentation of biodiversity in every area before they vanish for which the study of taxonomy as a discipline is critical."

The study was carried out by GGSIPU students Bhoopender Prasad Vidhel and Shubhi Malik, mentored by Das, besides Senior Scientific Officer of Delhi government, Dr BC Sabata.