When I first read the BBC headline, I thought to myself, if there was a discovery of a giant spider, of course, it would be from Australia.
Researchers from Australia’s Queensland Museum discovered the “giant” trapdoor spider whilst conducting a study in Queensland state, west of Brisbane. The spider was hiding under a little trapdoor spun together using silk and soil.
The discovery was made by researchers involved in Queensland Museum’s Project DIG, which has been in operation for the past four years to understand more about the state’s biodiversity.
What surprised the researchers though was the sheer size of the spider. Dr Michael Rix, lead researcher in the project, said in a statement that females of this species which can live for over 20 years in the wild, can reach sizes of around 5 cm in diameter. That’s around the size of a R5 coin.
“It’s very big for a trapdoor spider,” said Rix, who is also Queensland Museum’s principal scientist and curator of arachnology. “The females of this species can get up to five centimetres in body length.”
The new species, the discovery of which was published in the Journal of Arachnology, plays an important role in the leaf litter ecosystem, helping to control insect populations.
But Rix said the researchers found the species was likely threatened due to its small natural range, which is confined to a small area, and the amount of woodland that had been cleared in the region.
“We think they’re probably in a bit of trouble … but more work needs to be done to get a better handle of how much,’ he said.
The female spiders spend their lives underground, while the males, which are honey red in colour, leave the burrow after five to seven years to find a mate in another burrow, Rix said.
During the day, the trapdoor the spiders live beneath is closed. But at night, the spider sits just under the ajar door, waiting to grab insects as they scurry by.
The spiders use venom to subdue their prey, but Rix said they were not dangerous to humans.
“The bite might be physically painful because of their size, but they’re not dangerous,” he said.
The spider has been named Euoplos Dignitas, the former meaning a group of trapdoor spiders, and the latter meaning dignity or greatness which is a nod to the size of the spider and Project DIG.
At the beginning of March, a new species of gecko that “looks like a little dragon”, with a beaky face and spiny leaf-shaped tail, was discovered on an uninhabited island, 50 km offshore from the north Queensland city of Mackay.
Associate Professor Conrad Hoskin, a terrestrial ecologist at James Cook University, came across the lizard during a four-day survey of the island, in a “deep bouldery habitat covered in fig trees and ferns”.
According to a report in the Guardian, Hoskin named the animal Phyllurus fimbriatus, the Scawfell Island leaf-tailed gecko with its scientific name refers to the fringe of spines around the lizard’s tail.
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