Welcome to Cool Stuff Daily, where today we're taking a look at a story out of Thailand,

courtesy of ZME science and Tibipui.

By all accounts, it began as an ordinary day in Kanchanaberry, a forested region in Western Thailand.

A group of local naturalists were digging through the dirt, looking for the small burrows that often hide ambush predators.

What they unearthed instead was more than they bargained for, a pocket-sized spider whose body was perfectly divided,

one half bright orange, the other ghostly gray.

The team led by entomologist Shalakorn Kuntze of Shula Longcorn

University, quickly realized this was no ordinary arachnid. This was a new species, but that's not

actually the kicker. The spider was split between male and female, a condition known as bilateral gynandromorphism.

When Kuntzetti's colleague, Sirin Lomrudy, posted photos of the strange half-colored spider

on Facebook, Kuntetti was stunned.

He told Forbes, quote, upon contacting him, I discerned that the specimen was not only a

gyndromorph, but also morphologically distinct

from any previously described species, end quote.

The team began collecting more specimens, eventually identifying both male and female individuals.

The species, now formally described in the journal Zutaksa, asMarcos Inuzuma belongs to a group of burrowing

mygalomorphs known as wishbone spiders.

As you may be able to tell when you look at a photo of these things, they're actually

a distant relative of tarantulas.

These spiders live hidden lives underground, building silk-line tunnels from which they leap to snatch unsuspecting prey.

The researchers named their new discovery after Inezuma, a character from the Mango One Piece,

who can switch between male and female forms.

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