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MOROCCO — A newly discovered species of desert spider does flips to escape danger.
Called the flic-flac spider after the gymnastics term for a back handspring, the new species Cebrennus rechenbergi lives in the Erg Chebbi sand desert in Morocco and uses its legs to create a rolling motion when provoked, according to researchers from the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt.
"Like a gymnast, it propels itself off the ground, followed by a series of rapid flic-flac movements of its legs," a news release from the institute reads. "This gives the spider great flexibility — uphill, downhill or on level ground, Cebrennus rechenbergi can move along with ease."
While flipping, the spider can move twice as fast as it does while walking, researchers said. However, they also found that if the spider continues flipping for too long, it could result in its untimely death.
The spider was first observed by Ingo Rechenberg, a bionics expert who looks to nature for inspiration for his work. When he discovered the flic-flac spider's unique movements on an expedition to Morocco, he passed it on to spider expert Peter Jäger for classification.
Jäger determined the Cebrennus rechenbergi was a new species and named the spider after Rechenberg, who has created a robot model that copies the spider's movement. Rechenberg said the robot could be used in agriculture, on the ocean floor or on Mars.
The flic-flac spider is distinct from other spiders, like the golden rolling spider in Namibia that passively rolls down sand dunes using gravity, researchers said. Jäger was also able to differentiate the flic-flac spider from its close relative in Tunisia, the Cebrennus villosus, by examining the spider's sex organs.
The spider is nocturnal and lives in a tube-like home it makes in the sand to protect itself from the sun and potential predators, researchers said.
The findings about the new species was published in the journal Zootaxa.
