Two amateur spider hunters found a new species named after John Denver

Image Credit: Valerie Warhol/Carnegie Magazine The discovery of a new spider species did not begin in a remote forest or during an expedition. It happened inside a museum, where two amateur spider enthusiasts were working through specimens that had remained largely unnoticed for years. Valerie Warhol, an informatics assistant, and Amy Bianco, a part-time volunteer at Carnegie Museum of Natural History, found four rusty-orange trapdoor spiders in a jar while examining the museum’s arachnid collection. Their careful investigation eventually showed that the spiders represented a species unknown to science, which was later named Cyclocosmia johndenveri after the singer named John Denver.Amateur spider hunters’ routine work led to the discovery of John Denver speciesWarhol and Bianco were not setting out to discover a new species. Their regular work involved going through specimens that had not received much attention, identifying them and helping to digitise and catalogue the museum’s holdings. According to Carnegie Magazine, this work is important because turning physical specimens and their labels into detailed digital records allows researchers around the world to access collections...