Now there is concern that this major and unique component of Australia’s fauna may be threatened. However, these represent just a few common species, when in fact there are several hundred species found in particular habitats, most of which haven’t even received a formal scientific name. Trapdoor spiders are sometimes encountered in domestic gardens in towns and cities around Australia when they emerge from their burrows to feed or look for a mate. “We have good historical records of trapdoor spiders going back 60 years which showed population numbers were reasonably good, but recent surveys of the same areas show numbers are extremely low, and in some cases spiders are completely absent,” says project leader Professor Andrew Austin, from the University of Adelaide’s Australian Centre for Evolution Biology and Biodiversity. The findings have been published in the journal Austral Entomology. Led by the University of Adelaide, in collaboration with the Western Australian Museum, the Queensland Museum, the Department of Parks and Wildlife (WA) and The University of Western Australia, the scientists have compared numbers of trapdoors at various locations across Australia’s southern agricultural and arid zones with survey data from the 1950s to the present. The females of some species are known to live in the same burrow for more than 25 years. Recent surveys by Australian scientists have identified an apparent significant decline in the numbers of trapdoor spiders across southern Australiaįamous for their carefully camouflaged burrows – some with lids or ‘trapdoors’ from which they launch themselves to catch their prey – trapdoor spiders are remarkable animals. School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials.School of Architecture and Civil Engineering.School of Architecture and Built Environment.School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences.Institute for Sustainability Energy and Resources.Faculty of Sciences Engineering and Technology.Centre for Applied Conservation Science.
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