Meet Valerie Warhol and Amy Bianco: The amateur spider hunters who searched a museum drawer and discovered a new species named after John Denver

North America Science Sat, 19 Sep 2026 08:53:23 GMT Moderate confidence — 73/100

Image Credit: Valerie Warhol/Carnegie MagazineThe 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.

Image Credit: Valerie Warhol/Carnegie MagazineThe 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.

Sources: Times of India