Hunting ecology predicts eye arrangements in the modular visual system of spiders

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  Hunting ecology predicts eye arrangements in the modular visual system of spiders Summary Vision is one of the most important senses used by animals and contributes to fundamental behaviors, including foraging, navigation, and mate detection and selection. 1 Although much is known about how eye position and orientation correlate to ecology in the context of binocularity, 2 animals with multipartite visual systems (more than two eyes) remain comparatively neglected. Spiders are highly successful predators that occupy a range of ecological niches and usually possess eight eyes. Here, we use three-dimensional geometric morphometrics and evolutionary modeling to test whether eye positions, orientations, and interocular angles correlate with hunting strategies in 52 species across the spider phylogeny. We demonstrate that eye configurations diversified from an ancestral medial cluster, as seen in modern trapdoor spiders, to a halo-like configuration in orb-weavers, and to the fronta...

One more remarkable new genus and species of fossil scorpion from Burmese Cretaceous amber associated to the extant family Buthidae (Scorpiones: Buthoidea)

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One more remarkable new genus and species of fossil scorpion from Burmese Cretaceous amber associated to the extant family Buthidae (Scorpiones: Buthoidea)

Abstract

The study of a new scorpion specimen from Cretaceous Burmite leads to the descriptions of a new genus and species which once again can be associated to the buthoid lineage and to the family Buthidae C. L. Koch, 1837. The new species shows quite distinct characters, particularly a telson with a rounded-shape, absence of a sub-aculear tooth and the presence of a pseudo annular ring, which is uncommon among buthids in general. Several of its features can associate the new genus to some extant genera such as Butheolus Simon, 1882 and Hottentotta Birula, 1908. The discovery of this new genus and species confirms, once again, the existence of buthid elements within the Burmite fauna.

Lourenço W. R. & Velten J., 2025. – Un nouveau genre et une nouvelle espèce remarquable de scorpion fossile de l’ambre Crétacé de Birmanie associés à la famille actuelle des Buthidae (Scorpiones : Buthoidea). Faunitaxys, 13(35): 1 – 6.