Coronaspinus chaos

“Chaotic crown of thorns”
Kingdom
Microsynthera
Phylum
Plasticae
Class
Occlupanida
Order
Orthogonidectes
Family
Novenocentridae
Genus
Coronaspinus
Species
chaos
External morphology

Thick integument, lateral palps. 43 mm x 33.5 mm.

In the frenetic days just before the shelter-in-place orders of 2020, panicked shoppers swarmed into grocery stores before they and other businesses shut down to slow the spread of COVID-19. In between all the jostling shopping carts piled high with baking good and toilet paper, occlupanologists L. Swehla and C. Ebert noticed this huge occlupanid lurking suspiciously on the floor of a Berkeley produce market. Hypnotized by their find, they brought it to HORG. Whatever hapless host organism that was held in its unrelenting oral groove is, at the moment, unknown.