A new trapdoor spider species has been found in the Indian Ocean nation of Mauritius.
The Mauritian tidal trapdoor spider was first found in 2023 but was only recently identified formally as a new species. The spider was found by a restoration program working in Mauritius, with the discovery being an unexpected one.
“I had been surveying other habitats on the island, and all that remained was a stretch of coastal rock with sparse vegetation, not somewhere we expected to find something so remarkable. … I noticed a familiar pattern: a spider’s legs extending from its burrow, something I’d only ever seen before in lush forests and grasslands,” entomologist Max Tercel said in a release Tuesday from the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, which supports the program.
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The spider lives in holes in the bedrock, formed out of calcified red algae, that were initially dug by worms and mollusks thousands of years ago.
The spider then uses algae, silk and sand to create waterproof trapdoors that let it lie in wait for prey and prevent its hole from flooding, according to the Durrell release.
The spider has shown up on two small islands off the coast of the nation’s titular island of Mauritius, the scientists involved in its discovery said in a paper published in the journal Arachnology.
The Mauritian tidal trapdoor spider was one of 14 new species the researchers discovered, representing over a quarter of the 51 total spider species known to live in Mauritius, according to the paper.
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