![]() After about a week, the spiderlings molt to a larger size and then take off to live on their own. After the spiders emerge, they crawl onto the mother's abdomen and hold on while she actively runs and hunts. The most iconic of these is Idiosoma nigrum (also a shield-backed trapdoor spider), which is a listed threatened species.Female wolf spiders carry their egg sacs behind them, attached to their spinnerets. So far, this project has led to the description of more than 100 new species from throughout Australia, some of which are already classified as threatened by federal and state governments. Since 2012, a research team, led by Queensland Museum researcher Michael Rix, has been trying to discover and name all species of spiny trapdoor spider - this group includes the palisade trapdoor spiders, as well as other strange trapdoor spider species such as the shield-backed trapdoor spiders of Western Australia. Over time, this extremely limited dispersal ability has led to the evolution of many different trapdoor spider species, each of which occurs in only a very small area. Credit: Jeremy WilsonĪdult male trapdoor spiders will also leave their burrow to breed, but will only travel relatively short distances. The strange burrows of the trapdoor spider species Euoplos crenatus project out from between the roots and leaf-litter on the bank of a creek in a rainforest patch near Gympie, Queensland. Currently, this species is known to occur only within the reserve and in other rainforest patches in the immediate vicinity. ![]() This species is named after Elizabeth, Mabel and Mary Thynne, who originally donated the reserve land to the local council in 1941 to honour their mother Mary Thynne (née Cairncross). It's found in the Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve, a 55-hectare patch of subtropical rainforest popular with visitors to the Sunshine Coast hinterland. This species was originally discovered by local naturalists Kelvin and Amelia Nielsen in 1999, who then guided researchers back to the discovery location in 2016 to collect specimens so the species could be formally named.Īnother species, Euoplos thynnearum, constructs a burrow entrance with a thick lip within which the burrow door sits. Credit: Jeremy Wilson (left), Michael Rix (right) The burrow entrances project from the surrounding soil. The remarkable palisade burrows constructed by two different species of palisade trapdoor spider. No other spider species in the world constructs something similar. This marvel of natural architecture is constructed by the spider using silk and soil. The hinged door that covers the burrow entrance is adorned with several rounded lobes which project from the door's circumference. One species, found in national parkland near Gympie and known scientifically as Euoplos crenatus, constructs a particularly elaborate burrow. Not only that, but each of the four new palisade trapdoor spider species constructs its own unique type of burrow. The entrance to the burrow projects out from the surrounding soil like a miniature turret. These newly described spiders have been given the common name palisade trapdoor spiders because of the strange and unique burrows they construct. But each of the new species occurs in only its own single, isolated patch of rainforest in southeastern Queensland, and nowhere else.īecause these species have such tiny natural distributions, they are especially vulnerable to extinction. ![]()
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