New genus of spider named after ABBA

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Australian biologists have described a new genus of cross-spiders (Araneidae) for science, living in the east of the mainland. It was named Abba, in honor of the famous Swedish pop group, and so far is represented by the only Abba transversa species. The discovery was reported in the journal Evolutionary Systematics.

The discovery of the new genus comes after 15 years of studying spider collections from Australian museums by a pair of Murdoch University scientists. Scientists examined almost 12,000 specimens when they came across spiders measuring 3-4 millimeters that do not fit into any known genus. In particular, they have five long spines on the first pair of legs in males and a creamy white color of the abdomen with two dark spots. . Rod was renamed Abba to honor the Swedish band of the same name, whose songs Mamma Mia! (2008) and Mamma Mia – Here We Go again! (2018) entertained the authors for hours, as they explained in the article.

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