Mesostalita found!

After more than 20 years of searching, the female of a new species from the genus Mesostalita was finally found in the cave Provala on Park prirode “Žumberak – Samoborsko gorje”! Two males collected by Tomica Rubinić in 2003 were the only known specimens until the last weekend. The species is 3.5 mm in size.

The lucky ones in the team were Iva Čupić, Tin Rožman, Alen Kirin and Martina Pavlek.

The research is part of the project “Systematics, taxonomy and protection of cave spiders from the subfamily Rhodinae” which is carried out at the Ruđer Bošković Institute and is financed by the Adris grupa.