Fluorescent spider and armored cricket among incredible discoveries in Angola

 

A species of crowned crab spider fluoresces under ultraviolet light, for reasons still unclear to scientists. It is one of dozens of species thought to be unknown to science recently documented in the remote Angolan highlands in a survey by The Wilderness Project. Scroll through to see more new and incredible species photographed.

Nicky Bay/The Wilderness Project

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Amid collapsing global biodiversity, there’s a great irony: We’re discovering new species faster than ever before.

An expedition to eastern Angola announced Wednesday it had found dozens of species potentially unknown to science in a location described by organizers as “one of Africa’s last great biodiversity blank spots.”

The remote Lisima plateau in Angola’s highlands is a vast and vital landscape feeding the headwaters of the Congo, Okavango, Zambezi and Cuanza river systems. But its swamps and wetlands, grasslands and woodlands have been largely under-documented by science. Near-impenetrable geography and a ruinous 27-year civil war that ended in 2002 have stymied access. However, the area has begun yielding its secrets.

In 2024, an expedition led by South African explorer Steve Boyes successfully caught on camera a fabled “ghost elephant,” a genetically and physiologically distinct strand of giant elephant, cut off from other populations and adapted to the environment.

The newest survey, called the Cassai Life Atlas, was conducted in February by The Wilderness Project (founded by Boyes). It supports previous surveys conducted by the National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project.

A giant conehead mantis, photographed during the survey in Angola. The species lives in grassland, predominantly in southern Africa, and is a master of diguise.

Nicky Bay/The Wilderness Project

A team of 16 African and international specialists captured what The Wilderness Project describes as the most detailed picture yet of the plateau. More new species are likely to be identified as taxonomists begin the process of formally describing them.

Among the most alluring potentially new species is a crowned crab spider that
 glows blue under ultraviolet light — for reasons still unclear to scientists.
Another is a ladybird orb-web spider, which mimics the appearance of the toxic ladybird beetle, protecting it from predators.

Among the 103 dragonfly and damselfly species recorded by the expedition, eight are undescribed by science, along with eight new moths.

Three previously undescribed grasshopper, katydid and cricket species were recorded, and The Wilderness Project says more could follow once specialists can assess the specimens.