Patu digua

Patu digua is a very small species of spider. The male holotype and female paratype were collected from Río Digua, near Queremal, Valle del Cauca, in Colombia.^[1]

Patu digua
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Infraorder:	Araneomorphae
Family:	Symphytognathidae
Genus:	Patu
Species:	P. digua
Binomial name
Patu digua Forster & Platnick, 1977[1]

By some accounts it is the smallest spider in the world,^[2] as males reach a body size of only about 0.37 mm (0.015 in)^[3]—roughly one fifth the size of the head of a pin.

The use of the spider as a necrobotic gripping tool in microscopic manipulations was suggested in 2022.^[4]

See also

• Smallest organisms

References

1. Forster, Raymond R. & Platnick, Norman I. (9 May 1977). "A review of the spider family Symphytognathidae (Arachnida, Araneae)" (PDF). American Museum Novitates (2619): 1–29 [20]. hdl:2246/5471.
2. William A. Shear (1986). Spiders--webs, Behavior, and Evolution. Stanford University Press. pp. 425–. ISBN 978-0-8047-1203-3.
3. Taylor, Christopher (29 August 2008). "The Strangest of Spiders".
4. Yap, Te Faye & Liu, Zhen (Oct 2022). "Necrobotics: Biotic Materials as Ready-to-Use Actuators". Advanced Science. 9 (29): 2201174. doi:10.1002/advs.202201174. PMC 9561765. PMID 35875913.