Clever Species of Trapdoor Spiders Discovered in Australia
Arachnologists from the University of Western Australia have discovered two new species of trapdoor spiders in northern Australia, a first for the area. The arachnids – Kwonkan fluctellus and K. nemoralis – make their debut in the Australian Journal of Taxonomy.
With these two new species, genus Kwonkan now has an even dozen members. The other ten are from the southern parts of the country and are all found in drier habitats than the new arrivals, which were spotted in the Kimberly region of the north.
“We didn't discover these spiders in the typical dry savannah landscapes the Kimberley is known for,” says lead author Jeremy Wilson. “But instead the specimens we found of Kwonkan nemoralis, which grows to around the size of a 20-cent coin, were located deep within a gorge that shelters patches of richer forest.”
A 2o-cent coin is a little over an inch wide. But size isn’t what makes these spiders interesting so much as their ingenuity as architects. “The burrows constructed by the Kwonkan nemoralis had a little collapsible silken collar around the entrance, which had grains of sand embedded in it and were unlike anything we’d seen before – clever engineering that serves multiple functions.”
The primary function is keeping predators out of the house. When the opening is disturbed by the spider’s enemies – scorpions, centipedes, wasps – the “silken collar” collapses and seals the entrance, as the falling sand blends in with the surrounding landscape. The ingenious design may also protect the spider’s home during flash floods.
Photo credit: Dr. Jeremy Wilson / University of Western Australia
