Reading/Shenzhen Business Daily reporter Zhang Yan
Nature enthusiasts recently logged on to the World Spider Catalog website, and entering "shenzhen" in the Species (Species) column of the search page will appear with the result of "Anyphaena Shenzhen Lin & Li, sp.nov. This is the first of the 49,446 species of spiders currently reported in the world, and the only one named after "Shenzhen".
The World Spider List website records that 49,446 species of spiders have been reported worldwide
The only search result that appears after entering "shenzhen"
"There will be more than a dozen new spider species named 'Shenzhen' in the future." On May 9, Lu Qianle, the discoverer of the Shenzhen near-pipe spider and a "post-95" Shenzhen nature enthusiast, said in an exclusive interview with a reader and innovation reporter that he would use about 5 years to publish a Shenzhen spider atlas.
Spiders are not insects
In 2013, Lu Qianle, who was admitted to the School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering of Shenzhen University from Rong County, Guangxi, was not yet a nature lover. "There is no direction, the class is muddy, and the game is played after class." Lu Qianle described that at that time, he only wanted to finish 4 years of undergraduate education and find a decent job after graduation. Under such a goal-oriented approach, he decisively chose "transportation" when he divided his majors in the first semester of his freshman year.
In the spring of 2016, a small flyer on campus changed the trajectory of his life, and the OCT Wetland Park recruited volunteers, and he took the flyer to apply, and has since formed an indissoluble relationship with nature. "There, I met a lot of nature lovers and mentors, and they all had a big impact on me."
This is a primer, Lu Qianle found that among nature lovers in Shenzhen, there are many people who study birds, plants, and insects, but there are almost no spiders, "Since I want to drill a species, then I will choose spiders." ”
Lu Qianle said that spiders are not insects. Although insects are the most abundant group of animals on Earth, accounting for more than 50% of all biological species (including bacteria, fungi, viruses), insects are creatures of the arthropod phylum insects, and spiders are the organisms of the arthropod phylum arachnids. "If you can summarize it in one sentence, a spider is an 8-legged creature that can spit silk almost for a lifetime."
Lu Qianle conducted a field survey of spider resources in which the interviewee provided a picture
Because of his love for spiders and nature, Lu Qianle did not engage in the transportation industry, but became a natural science popularization practitioner. In order to observe spiders, Lu Qianle insists on natural observation at least once a week, and will also go to various parts of the country to conduct field surveys of spider resources in July and August every year. "At present, the farthest I have gone is Gansu, hoping to find more new spider species in China." Lu Qianle said that most of the more than 40,000 kinds of spiders in the world have been discovered by foreigners, and China is rich in land and biological species. Although there has been a boom in natural observation in China in recent years, they are concentrated in the two popular biological groups of birds and plants, and spiders are still a more niche natural observation biological group, so there are many new species to be discovered.
Photos of the new species were thrown into the folder
Lu Qianle first recorded the Shenzhen near-pipe spider during a field expedition to Maluan Mountain at the end of 2018.
On December 15, 2018, Lu Qianle photographed the Shenzhen close-pipe spider Lu Qianle for the first time
On the railing of the trail in the Biling Valley, Lu Qianle found a brown spider that was only a few millimeters long. At that time, he mistakenly thought that this was a kind of tube nest spider, and the tube nest spider often rolled its leaves into a tube shape as a nest, hence the name.
Back at home, he casually threw the picture into the "tube nest spider to be determined" folder, "Now that the researchers have named it, I think there was a reason for the misjudgment at that time, called 'near tube spider' to prove that it has a lot of similarities with the tube nest spider." ”
In 2018, Lu Qianle recorded this spider in the valleys of Shenzhen's Balcony Mountain and Wutong Mountain. "As I learn more about spiders, I also collect specimens at the same time, because without specimens, researchers can't identify species." Subsequently, Lu Qianle sent photos and specimens to several relevant spider research institutions, and the replies were "new species". Among them, Lin Xuejie, a spider-shape researcher at the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, decided that this new spider would be named after Shenzhen in the process of discussing with Lu Qianle.
Screenshot of the paper
Recently, the Journal of Animal Taxonomy (English edition) (Zoological Systematics) published the Article Tenwenty-three new spider species (Arachnida: Araneae) from Asia, in which forestry scholars such as Jie published 23 new species of spiders from all over Asia, including the Shenzhen near-tube spider. "This is the first spider named after Shenzhen, and it is also one of the first new spiders I found in Shenzhen, which feels quite meaningful."
Lu Qianle said that although the Shenzhen near-tube spider is named after Shenzhen, it is not a unique species in Shenzhen, and researchers such as Forestry Jie have found that Hainan also has the distribution of the Shenzhen near-pipe spider, but it is endemic to China. It is understood that the publication of this article has increased the number of domestic intumens arachnid species from 6 species in 1 genus to 12 species in 2 genera.
Shenzhen people live in a dozen kinds of spiders
Shenzhen near-tube spider on the blade Photo by Lu Qianle
The Shenzhen peritual spider is small, the adult body length is not more than 5 to 8 mm, the male is smaller than the female, the whole body is brown, the whole body is scattered with black markings; the foot is brown, long and prickly. Lu Qianle said that if you are in the valley, you can find it on the height vegetation from the chest to the top of the head. The juvenile Shenzhen near-tube spider will nest between two leaves or at the bend of the same leaf, hiding inside during the day and going out to hunt at night. It also leaves a small hole at one end of the nest from which it can escape when disturbed.
According to reports, the small Shenzhen near-tube spider is a brave hunter, it is a nomadic spider, preying on a variety of small insects that are also active on the surface of leaf branches.
Spider lovers currently belong to the "narrow door" in China, the WeChat interest group "Zhi Spider" initiated by Lu Qianle, where there are only more than 400 people in the country, but in fact, Shenzhen is very suitable for observing spiders. Lu Qianle said that he has found 303 species of spiders in Shenzhen, and he predicts that the total number of spider species in Shenzhen should be around 500, which needs to be continuously discovered. In addition to the published Nan's Ohrat spider and Shenzhen near-tube spider, he also found 13 new species of spiders in Shenzhen and hopes to publish them smoothly in the future.
The little ghost spider of The Buddha in the room was photographed by Lu Qianle
The double-banded flat-fly tiger that is active around the house is photographed by Lu Qianle
"Beginner enthusiasts can start from the home environment." Lu Qianle said that spiders are one of the closest creatures to us, and there are more than a dozen spiders in Shenzhen people's homes, including two major types of spiders: the safari type and the web weaving type. "The ghost spider with long legs and long body commonly found in Shenzhen people's homes is called 'Uncle Long-legged' in English, which is very graphic." Lu Qianle said that there are also nomadic jumping spiders are also very common, and the ancient Chinese also gave the gray and white jumping spider a very nice name, called "double-belted flat fly tiger", describing this little guy as fierce as a tiger when preying.
(Related links) Spider Quick Q&A
1. Q: Spiders will spit silk, will they all tie webs?
A: No, only web-weaved spiders have webs, and different species of spiders have different shapes.
Silver-spotted worm with a round web of knots Photographed by Lu Qianle
Woven intricate webs of Ketan spiders Photographed by Lu Qianle
2. Q: What is the largest known spider and the smallest spider in Shenzhen?
A: The largest known spider in Shenzhen is the gyro-tongued spider, which is about the size of an adult's palm and likes to lie on the big rocks of the valley. The smallest is an oval-shaped spider, only about 1 mm, hiding in the deciduous layer, which is generally not easy to detect.
The largest known spider in Shenzhen: adult palm-sized gyro-tongued spider Photographed by Lu Qianle
The smallest known spider in Shenzhen: 1 mm large oval spider Photographed by Lu Qianle
Review: Sun Shijian, Jiang Zhuxuan