The spiders belong to the Mysmenidae family, inhabit mountainous regions

May 25, 2013 20:21 GMT  ·  By
Female Mysmena wawuensis discovered in China's southern region (click to see full image)
   Female Mysmena wawuensis discovered in China's southern region (click to see full image)

A recent study published in the journal ZooKeys documents the discovery of two new miniature spider species in China.

The creatures were found in the country's southern region and evidence suggests that they only inhabit mountainous areas.

Thus, Trogloneta yuensis is said to call the Jinyun Mountain in Chongqing its home, while Mysmena wawuensis reportedly inhabits the Wawu Mountain. Mongabay informs us that the average Trogloneta yuensis measures just 1 millimeter (0.03 inches) in length.

However, Mysmena wawuensis are even smaller, meaning that their length is one of just 0.75 millimeters (0.029 inches).

Both these two new species of spiders belong to the Mysmenidae family.

“Although the family Mysmenidae is distributed worldwide, it is one of the least-studied family-level groups among orb-weaving spiders, and its diversity is grossly undersampled due to their small size (0.7–3 mm) and cryptic life style,” the researchers who found these two new miniature spider species explain.