Arachnologists poking around in Thailand discovered a new species of mygalomorph, Damarchus inazuma. One individual was particularly unusual: it’s a gynandromorph!
Damarchus inazuma sp. nov. gynandromorph (ARA–2021–273). A dorsal habitus (live); B dorsal habitus (preserved); C ventral habitus (preserved). Scale bars: 1 cm (A, B, C).
Female side is on the left, male on the right.
Kunsete, C., Thanoosing, C., Sivayyapram, V., Traiyasut, P. & Warrit, N. (2025) New insights into Damarchus: a new species and gynandromorph description from Thailand (Araneae: Bemmeridae). Zootaxa, 5696 (3), 409–424. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5696.3.6
PZ, how can that be? The good christian terrorists teach us there are only male and female and nothing else! (ROFLMAO)
Seriously, that is fascinating. I noted that the number of legs is uneven on each side. Is that part of a mutation?
Does the gyandromorph really have five legs or stumps a side? Or is the fifth ‘leg’ something else?
…Oh, they killed it. That’s very sad.
@ previous commenters: it’s very common for tarantulas to lose legs under stress, so it was probably an injury. might have even happened during capture.
off topic, but important: I hope PZ is making progress in the effort to regain health in all aspects. I (and I’m sure others) would like to hear from you, PZ, in regard to that.
@3 Nice Ogress wrote: it’s very common for tarantulas to lose legs under stress,
I reply: That makes sense. However, the 5 leg ‘roots’ on each side still seem to be some sort of mutation. (he said, being ‘sciencey’)
@5 shermanj
as a physicist, i can confidently tell you: i agree with your count of 10 total leg “root” thingies.
also, look at the left side of the spider. everything is slightly larger! i suppose i could google, but i bet female tarantulas are larger. pretty neat that the gynandromorpism conserves the relative sex sizes!
must be awkward for the spiders arachnid locomotion!
does it only walk in circles?