Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
A new and large species of spider has been found living in Queensland, Australia, and researchers say it's in need of protection.
Rare and colourful, the tarantula-like creature is a type of golden trapdoor spider belonging to the genus Euoplos, which since 2017 has been the subject of an extensive research program, according to a study published March 15 in the Journal of Arachnology.
Now called Euoplos dignita, the species was first discovered in the early 20th century, near the towns of Monto and Eidsvold, but it remained undescribed and unnamed due to a lack of research, said study author Michael Rix, principal curator of arachnology at the Queensland Museum Network, via email.
For years, there have been only a handful of Euoplos dignita specimens in the Queensland Museum's collection, all but one of which were collected before the 1970s. There were no known males among them — which posed a significant obstacle for Rix and his research team.
Having a male specimen is important for being able to identify and name a species within the Mygalomorphae order, which Euoplos spiders are part of, said Paula Cushing, senior curator in vertebrate zoology at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Cushing, who is also secretary of the American Arachnological Society, wasn't involved in the study.
"Oftentimes, in order to figure out if what you're looking at is new to science, you almost always, with spiders, have to examine the genitalia," she added.
So the researchers needed new genetic material they could test from a living male specimen — which meant they had to find one.
They finally spotted what they were looking for on a roadside in the Eidsvold-Monto region after a three-day search in May 2021. It was the first collection of the species since the 1990s.
After comparing their find to other specimens in the museum's collection, the research team officially described Euoplos dignitas. Dignitas is "Latin for dignity or greatness, in reference to the really spectacular nature of this spider," Rix said in a YouTube video published by the Queensland Museum Network. "It's a big, beautiful species."
Females of the species have a red-brown carapace, burrow-building behaviour and can grow to 2 inches long, which is "very large" for this type of spider, according to the study. The males have a "striking 'honey-red' carapace and legs," and their abdomens are grayish brown.
"These spiders are pretty cool because they are so long lived. Some trapdoor mygalomorphs can live for literally decades," Cushing said. "The longest-lived trapdoor tarantula was 43 years old."
Protection is needed for this rare species, the researchers also found. When the researchers located the male Euoplos dignitas specimen, they observed that most of the roadside habitats that would typically be available for this species had been cleared for agriculture or highly disturbed, which is "extremely destructive for trapdoor spiders, their burrows and the integrity of their habitat," according to the researchers.
"Until detailed survey work is completed, we won't know how many remaining populations exist," Rix said. "But the natural range of the species is small (and) highly fragmented, and we were only able to discover one living (specimen) at the time."
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.