This newly-discovered species of cartwheeling spider, Cebrennus rechenbergi or Moroccan flic-flac spider, is definitely something to see. From ScienceTake, watch it (and the robot that it inspired) take a tumble or two. There’s also another video of the pair in German here.
This creature reminded us of the Golden Wheel spider that is featured in episode one of the BBC’s phenomenal Africa series, but there’s a key difference between them. From The New York Times:
Another arachnid, the golden rolling spider, exhibits a similar flipping behavior, but can only roll rapidly downhill, with the aid of gravity; the flic-flac spider can do its tumbling uphill, as well as on level ground and downhill.
In the archives: the Golden Wheel spider, and a few other sand robots – the jumping Sand Flea robot and robot legs made for Mars.
via Tinybop.
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