A newly identified Amazon spider, the Taczanowskia waska, is gaining attention because its camouflage evokes "The Last of Us."
According to Dexerto, the species seems to imitate the body of a spider that has been overtaken by a parasitic "zombie" fungus.
What happened?
What gives the animal its eerie appearance are a pale body and thin, elongated structures that resemble the fruiting growths of Gibellula, a real fungus genus that infects spiders and erupts from their bodies.
Conservationist Alexander Bentley was looking at what he assumed was a fungus-struck spider corpse on the underside of a leaf in the Amazon — until it moved.
The species was eventually described in the journal Zootaxa by a team led by biologist David Ricardo Díaz-Guevara, after Bentley had shared photos on iNaturalist that users quickly singled out as unusual.
It also remains motionless beneath leaves, matching the protected places where real Gibellula fungi grow, away from the rain.
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Why does it matter?
Scientists think resembling a fungus-consumed carcass may help T. waska avoid predators.
Rather than building a web like most orb-weavers, the spider seems to wait in place and seize insects flying past with its front legs.
Researchers said no previously documented spider has been found mimicking a fungus that specifically preys on spiders.
The discovery also points to how much biodiversity in the Amazon remains poorly understood — and how tools such as citizen-science platforms can help scientists identify species that might otherwise go unnoticed.
What are people saying?
Much of the reaction has fallen somewhere between fascination and discomfort.
In a YouTube video about the unusual creature, commenters made their feelings known.
"This is a little terrifying but very interesting," one said. Larger animals mimic their sick or dead versions as well, for example opossums."
"I wonder what they look like when they get infected by the fungi," another added.
"Evolution, you gotta be kidding," wrote a third.
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