''Cebrennus rechenbergi'', also known as the Moroccan flic-flac spider and cartwheeling spider, is a species of huntsman spider indigenous to the sand dunes of the Erg Chebbi desert in

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to A ...

. If provoked or threatened it can escape by doubling its normal walking speed using forward or backward flips similar to acrobatic

flic-flac Because ballet became formalized in France, a significant part of ballet terminology is in the French language. A À la seconde () (Literally "to second") If a step is done "à la seconde," it is done to the side. 'Second position'. It can also ...

movements used by gymnasts. ''C. rechenbergi'' is the only spider known to use this unique form of rolling locomotion. The discovery of the Moroccan flic-flac spider has influenced biomimetic robot research, resulting in the development of an experimental robot based on the spider's motion.King, R.S. (2013). ''BiLBIQ: A Biologically Inspired Robot with Walking and Rolling Locomotion''. Biosystems and Biorobotics. 2. Springer, Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Etymology

The spider is named after its discoverer, Ingo Rechenberg,

bionics Bionics or biologically inspired engineering is the application of biological methods and systems found in nature to the study and design of engineering systems and modern technology. The word ''bionic'', coined by Jack E. Steele in August 1 ...

professor at the Technische Universität Berlin. Rechenberg may have first encountered the spider on a trip to Morocco as early as 2006, but it was not until 2008 that he collected the first specimen.Im Gespräch: Ingo Rechenberg über eine neu entdeckte Art Rollende Spinnen für den Mars. ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'', p. 7. January 10, 2009. It was initially confused with the Tunisian spider ''

Cebrennus villosus ''Cebrennus'' is a genus of huntsman spiders that was first described by Eugène Louis Simon in 1880. It is considered a senior synonym of ''Cerbalopsis''. The Moroccan flic-flac spider (''C. rechenbergi''), that uses a flic-flac motion to esca ...

'', but later identified as a separate species by

Peter Jäger Peter Jäger is a German arachnologist, and current Head of Arachnology at the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum in Frankfurt, Germany. He has named several spiders after celebrities; in 2008, he named ''Heteropoda davidbow ...

of the

Senckenberg Nature Research Society The Senckenberg Nature Research Society (german: link=no, Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, until 2008 ''Senckenbergische Naturforschende Gesellschaft'') is a German scholarly society with headquarters in Frankfurt am Main. Overview ...

. After observing small variations in the genitalia of the two species and noticing the distinctive flic-flac motion of the spider, Jäger confirmed its status as a new species. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of seve ...

is dated 15 July 2009.Jäger, Peter (April 2014). ''Cebrennus'' Simon, 1880 (Araneae: Sparassidae): a revisionary up-date with the description of four new species and an updated identification key for all species. ''Zootaxa'', 3790 (2): 339–350.

Description

Jäger describes ''C. rechenbergi'' as a medium-sized huntsman spider. Male bodies measure long; female bodies measure long. Males and females are similarly colored white with black scopulae on their ventral legs, and yellow coloring on their dorsal

opisthosoma The opisthosoma is the posterior part of the body in some arthropods, behind the prosoma (cephalothorax). It is a distinctive feature of the subphylum Chelicerata (arachnids, horseshoe crabs and others). Although it is similar in most respects to ...

and femora.

Behavior

The Moroccan flic-flac spider is nocturnal and is known to feed on moths before sunrise. It spends the hot desert days in its cool burrow in the sand protected from the sun and predators. The spider creates its dwelling with its

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") an ...

s (feelers) and bristles, forming long, vertical tubes out of sand and silk. Using a series of rapid, acrobatic

movements of its legs similar to those used by gymnasts, the spider is able to actively propel itself off the ground, allowing it to move both down and uphill, even at a 40 percent incline. This behavior is different than other huntsman spiders, such as ''

Carparachne aureoflava The wheel spider or golden wheel spider (''Carparachne aureoflava''), is a huntsman spider native to the Namib Desert of Southern Africa. This spider should not be confused with '' Leucorchestris arenicola'', a spider sharing the same common nam ...

'' from the

Namib Desert The Namib ( ; pt, Namibe) is a coastal desert in Southern Africa. The name is of Khoekhoegowab origin and means "vast place". According to the broadest definition, the Namib stretches for more than along the Atlantic coasts of Angola, Nami ...

, which uses passive cartwheeling as a form of locomotion. The flic-flac spider can reach speeds of up to 2 m/s using forward or back flips to evade threats.

Distribution

''C. rechenbergi'' lives in the sand dunes of the Erg Chebbi desert located in

Errachidia Province Errachidia (Berber language: Imetɣaren) is a province located in eastern central Morocco in the region of Dra-Tafilalt. Errachidia is bordered by Algeria to the southeast and by the Moroccan provinces of Figig to the northeast, Midelt to the n ...

in southeastern Morocco near the border with Algeria. It is one of 17 species in the genus ''

Cebrennus ''Cebrennus'' is a genus of huntsman spiders that was first described by Eugène Louis Simon in 1880. It is considered a senior synonym of ''Cerbalopsis''. The Moroccan flic-flac spider (''C. rechenbergi''), that uses a flic-flac motion to esc ...

'', typically found in Northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.Platnick, Norman I. (2014)
Fam. Sparassidae
''The World Spider Catalog'', Version 14.5. New York, NY, US: American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 28 July 2014.

Spider robot

Rechenberg's discovery of the flic-flac spider inspired the development of a biomimetic robot based on the rolling spider locomotion. The design process initially involved at least four generations, with the fourth using six legs in three pairs. Rechenberg named the working machine model Tabbot, based on the

Berber Berber or Berbers may refer to: Ethnic group * Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa * Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages Places * Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile People with the surname * Ady Berber (1913–19 ...

word "tabacha", meaning spider. The model, which is approximately 25 cm in length, can both walk in the sand and turn somersaults to move. Rechenberg envisions possible uses for the robot "in agriculture, on the ocean floor, or even on Mars".Hays, Brooks (6 May 2014)
Robot mimics cartwheel movement of desert spider
United Press International. Retrieved 18 July 2014.

Notes

References

External links

Technical University Berlin
Ingo Rechenberg demonstrating ''C. rechenbergi'' movements

Video Cebrennus rechenbergi – the flic-flac spider

Video of Tabbot
{{Taxonbar, from=Q16735951 Sparassidae Spiders of Africa Spiders described in 2014 Rolling animals Endemic fauna of Morocco