''Garcorops jadis'' is a possibly

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of Wall crab spider, family

Selenopidae Selenopidae, also called wall crab spiders, wall spiders and flatties, is a family of nocturnal, free-ranging, araneomorph spiders first described by Eugène Simon in 1897. It contains over 281 species in nine genera, of which '' Selenops'' is th ...

, and at present, it is one of four known species in the genus ''

Garcorops ''Garcorops'' is a genus of east African wall spiders that was first described by J. A. Corronca in 2003. it contains three species, found on Madagascar and Comoros: '' G. jocquei'', '' G. madagascar'', and '' G. paulyi''. In addition, one spec ...

''. The species is solely known from

copal Copal is a tree resin, particularly the aromatic resins from the copal tree '' Protium copal'' ( Burseraceae) used by the cultures of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica as ceremonially burned incense and for other purposes. More generally, copal includ ...

found on the beach near

Sambava Sambava is a city and commune (commune urbaine; ) at the east coast of northern Madagascar. It is the capital of Sambava District and Sava Region. The population of the commune was 84,039 in as of the 2018 commune census. Infrastructure Sambav ...

, on the northeast coast of

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

History and classification

''Garcorops jadis'' is known only from one fossil, the holotype. The single, adult male individual is preserved in a clear ''

Hymenaea verrucosa ''Hymenaea verrucosa'' (commonly known as Zanzibar copal, East African copal, or amber tree) is a species of flowering plant in the legume family, Fabaceae. It belongs to the paraphyletic subfamily Caesalpinioideae. It is a large tree native to ...

specimen. The copal measures with several

diptera Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advance ...

ns, a

cockroach Cockroaches (or roaches) are insects belonging to the Order (biology), order Blattodea (Blattaria). About 30 cockroach species out of 4,600 are associated with human habitats. Some species are well-known Pest (organism), pests. Modern cockro ...

, a

mite Mites are small arachnids (eight-legged arthropods) of two large orders, the Acariformes and the Parasitiformes, which were historically grouped together in the subclass Acari. However, most recent genetic analyses do not recover the two as eac ...

and a juvenile araneid spider also included within. The copal is currently housed in the

Royal Museum for Central Africa The Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) (; ; ), communicating under the name AfricaMuseum since 2018, is an ethnography and natural history museum situated in Tervuren in Flemish Brabant, Belgium, just outside Brussels. It was originally b ...

Tervuren Tervuren (; ) is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in the Flemish region of Belgium. The municipality comprises the villages of Duisburg, Tervuren proper, Vossem and Moorsel. On 1 January 2006, Tervuren had a total population o ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. ''G. jadis'' was first studied by Jan Bosselaers, with his March 2004

type description A species description is a formal scientific description of a newly encountered species, typically articulated through a scientific publication. Its purpose is to provide a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differ ...

being published in the journal ''

Zootaxa ''Zootaxa'' is a peer-reviewed scientific mega journal for animal taxonomists. It is published by Magnolia Press (Auckland, New Zealand). The journal was established by Zhi-Qiang Zhang in 2001 and new issues are published multiple times a week ...

''. The

specific Specific may refer to: * Specificity (disambiguation) * Specific, a cure or therapy for a specific illness Law * Specific deterrence, focussed on an individual * Specific finding, intermediate verdict used by a jury in determining the final ...

name was coined by Jan Bosselaers as a reference to Jadis, the White Witch from the 1950 children's fantasy novel ''

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe ''The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'' is a portal fantasy novel written by British author C. S. Lewis, published by Geoffrey Bles in 1950. It is the first published and best known of seven novels in ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' (1950–1956 ...

'' by

C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer, literary scholar and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Magdalen College, Oxford (1925–1954), and Magdalen ...

in reference to the beautiful quality of preservation in the holotype specimen, which seems "enclosed in ice, frozen in time forever". In September 2004 paleoarachnologist

Jörg Wunderlich Jörg Wunderlich (born 19 December 1939) is a German arachnologist and palaeontologist. He is best known for his study of spiders in amber, describing over 1000 species, 300 genera, 50 tribes/subfamilies and 18 families in over 180 publications. ...

published the description of ''?Anyphops cortex'', for which he was uncertain of the generic placement. After reviewing the type specimens of both ''?Anyphops cortex'' and ''Garcorops jadis'', David Penney, Hirotsugu Ono & Paul A. Selden determined the two specimens were from the same species belonging to ''Garcorops''. As a result of the name ''Garcorops jadis'' being published first, ''?Anyphops cortex'' was declared a

junior synonym In taxonomy, the scientific classification of living organisms, a synonym is an alternative scientific name for the accepted scientific name of a taxon. The botanical and zoological codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. ...

Description

''Garcorops jadis'' is with a carapace that is . The carapace is a yellow-brown in color with some darker marking still visible and a coating of white hairs while the abdomen is also yellow-brown with some darker markings and pale pointed hairs. The legs are a similar in coloration to the body and show faint dark banded markings. The overall structure and positioning of the eyes indicates placement into the genus ''Garcorops''. Of the extant species of ''Garcorops'', ''G. jadis'' is most similar to the endemic ''G. madagascar''. Both species have a well developed cymbial dorsal scopula with long embolus circling the bulbus. However the retrolateral tibial apophysis on the

pedipalp Pedipalps (commonly shortened to palps or palpi) are the secondary pair of forward appendages among Chelicerata, chelicerates – a group of arthropods including spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders. The pedipalps are lateral to ...

s of ''Garcorops jadis'' is more pointed then that of ''G. madagascar''. Due to the preservation of the holotype and only known specimen in copal, it is uncertain as to the age and status of the species. It is possible that ''Garcorops jadis'' is an extant species which has not been recovered as live specimens. It is also possible, however, that the species is already extinct.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1493987 Selenopidae Fossils of Madagascar Fossil taxa described in 2004 Spiders described in 2004