Darwin's bark spider

Darwin's bark spider
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Infraorder: Araneomorphae
Family: Araneidae
Genus: Caerostris
Species:
C. darwini
Binomial name
Caerostris darwini
Kuntner & Agnarsson, 2010[1]

Darwin's bark spider (Caerostris darwini) is an orb-weaver spider that produces the largest known orb webs, ranging from 900 to 28,000 square centimetres (140 to 4,340 sq in),[2][3] with bridge lines spanning up to 25 metres (82 ft). The spider was discovered in Madagascar in the Andasibe-Mantadia National Park in 2009.[4] Its silk is the toughest biological material ever studied. Its tensile strength is 1.6 GPa.[5] The species was named in honour of the naturalist Charles Darwin on November 24, 2009—precisely 150 years after the publication of The Origin of Species.[2]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference WSC_s3444 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Kuntner, Matjaž & Agnarsson, Ingi (2010). "Web gigantism in Darwin's bark spider, a new species from Madagascar (Araneidae: Caerostris)". The Journal of Arachnology. 38 (2). American Arachnological Society: 346–356. doi:10.1636/B09-113.1. S2CID 54079094.
  3. ^ Gregorič, Matjaž; Agnarsson, Ingi; Blackledge, Todd & Kuntner, Matjaž (2011). "Darwin's bark spider: giant prey in giant orb webs (Caerostris darwini, Araneae: Araneidae)?" (PDF). Journal of Arachnology. 39 (2): 287–295. doi:10.1636/cb10-95.1. S2CID 52207024. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-08-09. Retrieved 2016-03-13.
  4. ^ Walker, Matt (16 September 2010). "Gigantic spider's web discovered in Madagascar". BBC News. Retrieved 17 September 2010.
  5. ^ Kono, Nobuaki; Ohtoshi, Rintaro; Malay, Ali D.; Mori, Masaru; Masunaga, Hiroyasu; Yoshida, Yuki; Nakamura, Hiroyuki; Numata, Keiji; Arakawa, Kazuharu (2021). "Darwin's bark spider shares a spidroin repertoire with Caerostris extrusa but achieves extraordinary silk toughness through gene expression". Open Biology. 11 (12). The Royal Society: 210242. doi:10.1098/rsob.210242. ISSN 2046-2441. PMC 8692038. PMID 34932907. S2CID 245355108.