Taczanowskia waska is a species of spider, first formally described in 2026. Discovered in Ecuador, it is known for having growths on its exoskeleton that mimic the signs of Cordyceps infection.
Rather than spinning a web, T. waska plays dead and then seizes passing prey with its front legs.
Naturalist Alexander Griffin Bentley discovered the spider in 2025, while leading a tour group for the conservation organization Waska Amazonia. After he posted photographs of the specimen to iNaturalist, users identified it as a member of the genus Taczanowskia, and David Ricardo DÃÂaz-Guevara of the Ecuadorian Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad identified it as a new species; arachnologist Nadine Dupérré subsequently located another specimen, collected in Bolivia in 1903, in the holdings of a museum in Germany.