''Poecilotheria rajaei'' is a

tarantula Tarantulas comprise a group of large and often hairy spiders of the family Theraphosidae. , 1,040 species have been identified, with 156 genera. The term "tarantula" is usually used to describe members of the family Theraphosidae, although ...

in the genus ''

Poecilotheria ''Poecilotheria'' is a genus of tarantulas native to India and Sri Lanka. It was first described by Eugène Louis Simon in 1885. They are arboreal tarantulas, commonly known as ornamental tarantulas, known for their vivid color patterns, fast mov ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

Genus

The genus is native to

and

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. The name ''Poecilotheria'' is derived from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: "poikilos", meaning spotted, and "therion", meaning wild beast.

Discovery

''P. rajaei'' was officially described in a 2012 publication of the British Tarantula Society. It was discovered in 2009 when a villager brought a dead specimen to Ranil Nanayakkara, the co-founder of the Sri Lankan Biodiversity Education and Research organization, who was conducting an arachnid survey of Sri Lanka at the time.

Description

The spider has a leg span of up to , has vivid yellow and gray piping on the first and fourth legs with a pink abdominal band. It prefers to live in old-growth trees, but is considered rare due to deforestation in its war-torn habitat and has taken to living in old buildings. The venom of ''P. rajaei'' is not lethal to humans but can kill small rodents, birds, lizards and snakes. It is not yet known exactly how rare the newly discovered tarantula is, but there is some concern that

habitat destruction Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

is causing their number to dwindle. The species was named for Michael Rajakumar Purajah, the local police inspector who guided the research team while they searched for living specimens.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q10294423 rajaei Spiders described in 2012 Spiders of Asia Endemic fauna of Sri Lanka Endemic fauna of India