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Till recently, Cryptomaster, classified under the daddy longlegs genus, was represented by only one species, C. leviathan. It lurks in the mountains of southwest Oregon and has not been studied much since it was discovered in 1969.

A team of researchers led by Dr James Starrett at the University of San Diego has found another bigger species in the genus, C. behemoth, reveals a university press release.

But while the Cryptomaster daddy longlegs is part of the "diverse harvestman suborder", the Laniatores has tinier legs and plunges to hide under logs, stones and leaf litter in tropical and temperate forests.

Both the Cryptomaster daddy longlegs species contain a small as well as a large form, yet, neither of them has an adequate genetic variation that marks out the presence of a separate group.

With their knowledge of the limited geographic regions that the Cryptomaster daddy longlegs live in, scientists discovered that the C. behemoth species is part of an, even more, limited range, though it has more genetic variation.

The first daddy longlegs species got a name because of its huge size as compared to others in the family of travunioid daddy longlegs. Now the latest behemoth species has been named after another huge monster taken from the Book of Job.

"This research highlights the importance of short-range endemic arachnids for understanding biodiversity and further reveals mountainous southern Oregon as a hotspot for endemic animal species," the authors explain.

The study was published in the Jan. 20,2016 issue of ZooKeys.