''Garcorops jadis'' is a possibly

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

Wall crab spider Selenopidae, also called wall crab spiders, wall spiders and flatties, is a family of araneomorph spiders first described by Eugène Simon in 1897. It contains over 280 species in nine genera, of which ''Selenops'' is the most well-known. This fa ...

, family

Selenopidae Selenopidae, also called wall crab spiders, wall spiders and flatties, is a family of araneomorph spiders first described by Eugène Simon in 1897. It contains over 280 species in nine genera, of which ''Selenops'' is the most well-known. This fam ...

, and at present, it is one of four known species in the genus ''

Garcorops ''Garcorops'' is a genus of east African wall spiders that was first described by J. A. Corronca in 2003. it contains three species, found on Madagascar and Comoros: '' G. jocquei'', '' G. madagascar'', and '' G. paulyi''. In addition, one spec ...

''. The species is solely known from

copal Copal is tree resin, particularly the aromatic resins from the copal tree ''Protium copal'' (Burseraceae) used by the cultures of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica as ceremonially burned incense and for other purposes. More generally, copal includes re ...

found on the beach near

Sambava Sambava is a city and commune (commune urbaine; mg, kaominina) at the east coast of northern Madagascar. It is the capital of Sambava District and Sava Region. The population of the commune was 84,039 in as of the 2018 commune census. Infrastr ...

, on the northeast coast of

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

History and classification

''Garcorops jadis'' is known only from one fossil, the holotype. The single, adult male individual is preserved in a clear ''

Hymenaea verrucosa ''Hymenaea verrucosa'' (Zanzibar copal, East African copal, or Amber tree) is a species of flowering plant in the legume family, Fabaceae. It belongs to the paraphyletic subfamily Caesalpinioideae. It is a large tree native to the tropical regio ...

specimen. The copal measures with several

diptera Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced ...

ns, a

cockroach Cockroaches (or roaches) are a paraphyletic group of insects belonging to Blattodea, containing all members of the group except termites. About 30 cockroach species out of 4,600 are associated with human habitats. Some species are well-known as ...

, a

mite Mites are small arachnids (eight-legged arthropods). Mites span two large orders of arachnids, the Acariformes and the Parasitiformes, which were historically grouped together in the subclass Acari, but genetic analysis does not show clear evid ...

and a juvenile araneid spider also included within. The copal is currently housed in the

Royal Museum for Central Africa The Royal Museum for Central Africa or RMCA ( nl, Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika or KMMA; french: Musée royal de l'Afrique centrale or MRAC; german: Königliches Museum für Zentralafrika or KMZA), also officially known as the AfricaMuse ...

Tervuren Tervuren () is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in Flanders, Belgium. The municipality comprises the villages of Duisburg, Tervuren, Vossem and Moorsel. On January 1, 2006, Tervuren had a total population of 20,636. The total a ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. ''G. jadis'' was first studied by Jan Bosselaers, with his March 2004

type description A species description is a formal description of a newly discovered species, usually in the form of a scientific paper. Its purpose is to give a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differs from species that have be ...

being published in the journal ''

Zootaxa ''Zootaxa'' is a peer-reviewed scientific mega journal for animal taxonomists. It is published by Magnolia Press (Auckland, New Zealand). The journal was established by Zhi-Qiang Zhang in 2001 and new issues are published multiple times a week. ...

''. The

specific Specific may refer to: * Specificity (disambiguation) * Specific, a cure or therapy for a specific illness Law * Specific deterrence, focussed on an individual * Specific finding, intermediate verdict used by a jury in determining the fina ...

name was coined by Jan Bosselaers as a reference to Jadis, the White Witch from the 1950 children's fantasy novel ''

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe ''The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'' is a fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis, published by Geoffrey Bles in 1950. It is the first published and best known of seven novels in ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' (1950–1956). Among all the ...

'' by

C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, 1925–1954) and Cambridge Univers ...

in reference to the beautiful quality of preservation in the holotype specimen, which seems "enclosed in ice, frozen in time forever". In September 2004 paleoarachnologist

Jörg Wunderlich Jörg Wunderlich (born 19 December 1939) is a German arachnologist and palaeontologist. He is best known for his study of spiders in amber, describing over 1000 species, 300 genera, 50 tribes/subfamilies and 18 families in over 180 publications. ...

published the description of ''?Anyphops cortex'', for which he was uncertain of the generic placement. After reviewing the type specimens of both ''?Anyphops cortex'' and ''Garcorops jadis'', David Penney, Hirotsugu Ono & Paul A. Selden determined the two specimens were from the same species belonging to ''Garcorops''. As a result of the name ''Garcorops jadis'' being published first, ''?Anyphops cortex'' was declared a

junior synonym The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. * In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linna ...

Description

''Garcorops jadis'' is with a carapace that is . The carapace is a yellow-brown in color with some darker marking still visible and a coating of white hairs while the abdomen is also yellow-brown with some darker markings and pale pointed hairs. The legs are a similar in coloration to the body and show faint dark banded markings. The overall structure and positioning of the eyes indicates placement into the genus ''Garcorops''. Of the extant species of ''Garcorops'', ''G. jadis'' is most similar to the endemic ''G. madagascar''. Both species have a well developed cymbial dorsal scopula with long embolus circling the bulbus. However the retrolateral tibial apophysis on the

pedipalp Pedipalps (commonly shortened to palps or palpi) are the second pair of appendages of chelicerates – a group of arthropods including spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders. The pedipalps are lateral to the chelicerae ("jaws") and ...

s of ''Garcorops jadis'' is more pointed then that of ''G. madagascar''. Due to the preservation of the holotype and only known specimen in copal, it is uncertain as to the age and status of the species. It is possible that ''Garcorops jadis'' is an extant species which has not been recovered as live specimens. It is also possible, however, that the species is already extinct.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1493987 Selenopidae Fossils of Madagascar Fossil taxa described in 2004 Spiders described in 2004