Emily Chan
Last year, researchers discovered a new tarantula species in Thailand with a unique coloration. Parts of its legs, back, and mouth were a bright, electric blue, which is one of the rarest colors in nature. The spider was named Chilobrachys natanicharum, the only tarantula that has ever been found in a Thai mangrove forest.
“During our expedition, we walked in the evening and at night during low tide, managing to collect only two of them,” said Narin Chomphuphuang, a co-author of the study and a researcher at Khon Kaen University in Thailand.
“These tarantulas inhabit hollow trees, and the difficulty of catching an electric-blue tarantula lies in the need to climb a tree and lure it out of a complex of hollows amid humid and slippery conditions.”
Unlike most tarantulas, C. natanicharum is able to live in burrows in evergreen forests, both in trees and on the ground. They also live in mangroves, where they primarily stick to tree hollows to avoid the tides.
Previously, the spider was known due to its presence in the tarantula trade market, but it had not been officially named, and scientists had not described its habitat or characteristics before.
Blue is rare to find in nature. For instance, less than one in ten flowers is blue. In addition, only about four percent of all known 900 species of tarantula have a blue coloration. Color in plants is achieved through pigments, which absorb most colors of light and appear as the ones they reflect.
Since blue pigment does not exist in nature, plants might mix pigments or adjust their chemical makeup to reflect this hue. However, most plants’ leaves will just absorb blue and violet because they have the highest frequencies on the visible light spectrum and contain the most energy.
In comparison, animals depend on physics to appear blue. Iridescence, a visual illusion where colors seem to change when viewed from various angles, is produced.
“The secret behind the vivid blue coloration of our tarantula lies not in the presence of blue pigments but rather in the unique structure of their hair, which incorporates nanostructures that manipulate light,” said Chomphuphuang.
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