Brilliant blue tarantula among potentially new species discovered in Guyana

• n the forests of the Potaro plateau of Guyana, scientists have discovered a bright blue tarantula that is likely new to science.
• The discovery was part of a larger biodiversity assessment survey of the Kaieteur Plateau and Upper Potaro area of Guyana, within the Pakaraima Mountains range.
• Overall, the team uncovered more than 30 species that are potentially new to science, and found several species that are known only from the Kaieteur Plateau-Upper Potaro region and nowhere else.

While walking through the forests of Guyana’s Potaro Plateau one night in 2014, herpetologist Andrew Snyder noticed a flash of bright cobalt blue peeking out of hole in a rotting tree stump. When Snyder took a closer look, he noticed that his flashlight had illuminated a small tarantula’s blue legs. The tree stump had numerous small holes, and nearly every hole housed a similar blue tarantula.

“I have spent years conducting surveys in Guyana … and I immediately knew that this one was unlike any species I have encountered before,” Snyder wrote recently. “Prior to this, I had only ever encountered individual tarantulas, either outside of a burrow like with the Goliath Bird-eaters, walking through the leaf-litter, or clinging to the =read more