Ick. As if we didn't have enough other things to worry about when diving, scientists have recently identified are stuggling with classifying a bottom-dwelling sea spider that uses a "straw" to "suck out the juices" of its prey, like sponges and sea slugs. In addition to creeping out the scientists, the spiders are confusing them: the creatures defy ordinary taxonomy. Although they are segmented and have an exoskeleton -- which makes them an arthropod, the group that contains crustaceans, insects, centipedes and spiders -- they also have that icky, not-convenient-to-classify "straw" feature, which Dr. Claudia Arango of the Australian Museum claims "they insert into the animals and suck out the juices." While some scientists believe that sea spiders make up an altogether new group of animals, Arango believes the spiders are probably related to the arthropod group that includes spiders and scorpions. Except that they're way, way sicker.

According to Arango, the most interesting (in her words: "sexy") sea spiders live in Antarctica. Claiming the populations there are more diverse, more abundant, bigger, and weirder than in other locations, she supports her argument by pointing to one Antarctic sea spider that boasts an "extra body segment," which gives it 5 pairs of legs instead of the usual 4. I can just hear the spider now: "Lady, that's not a leg..."

CORRECTION: Sea spider-lover and Divester-reader Rupert Krapp claims that "sea spiders or Pycnogonida or Pantopoda, as scientists like to call them, have been relatively well-known and studied for quite a while, including their 'vampiric' feeding modes. So sorry, but it's not a 'news story', technically. If you like, you could refer people to Wikipedia's article on Pantopoda or to some pics of Antarctic species on Guia Marina, an underwater field guide of Antarctica." Thanks, Rupert!