The story of the Kangaroo Island Micro-trapdoor spider offer insight into the challenges ahead for invertebrates – the tiny engines of Australia’s biodiversity – after this year’s cataclysmic fires.
Articles on Spiders
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“I arrived in Perth and bought a foam mattress for the back of my car – my bed for half of the trip. I stocked up on tinned food, and I headed north in search of these tiny eight-legged gems.”
There is little to fear and lots to love about spiders, which have not killed anyone in Australia for 40 years.
Don’t be afraid of spiders – be afraid for spiders
Human eyes are very complex and are good at doing many jobs at once, while spiders have different sorts of eyes that do different jobs.
The glue that gives spider webs their stickiness is a form of spider silk protein. Researchers can imagine cool uses for a synthetic version – but had to wait for the tricky glue gene to be sequenced.
Spiders use different types of silk for different purposes – and not all of them are as strong as steel.
Trapdoor spiders that build unique burrows are found only in small areas of Queensland. But they don’t travel very far from their location, and that could put them at risk.
Our fear of spiders is driven by a lack of information, but these fascinating creatures are often more harmless than harmful.
Believe it or not, I have studied the hairy legs of spiders for years and can give you some definitive answers on this.
Autumn is spider season. It’s worth getting to know more about our eight-legged friends.
Scientists were not sure if an adult butterfly could remember things it learned as a caterpillar. Then a study by a team of US scientists found something very interesting.
Why you should consider a live-and-let-live policy with the spiders you encounter in your home.
Not all bugs are bad! Put down the pesticides and get to know the predators and parasites hidden around you.
More and more evidence shows evolution isn’t as random as often thought.
Some spiders produce silk than can actually be stronger than steel and 50 times as light.
There are plenty of reasons to love and not hate spiders, but let’s start with just eight.
If we could mimic spider silk, it could revolutionise the fibres we use on a daily basis.
The closest relative of Kangaroo Island’s trapdoor spider lives in South Africa - and the arachnid could have arrived in Australia by oceanic migration.
Top contributors
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Vice Chancellor's Research Fellow in Ecology and Entomology, Edith Cowan University
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Evolutionary Biologist, ARC Future Fellow, UNSW
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Research Scientist, The University of Queensland
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Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland
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Lecturer, Chemistry and Forensic Science, Nottingham Trent University
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Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University
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Director of the Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO
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Associate Professor, Ecology, Northumbria University, Newcastle
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Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Genetics, University of Nottingham
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Research officer, The University of Queensland
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ARC Industry Fellow, Adelaide University
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Vice Chancellor Research Fellow in Conservation Ecology, Edith Cowan University
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Associate Professor, McGill University
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Emeritus Professor, Macquarie University
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Associate Professor, Australian National University