Researchers of the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, New Delhi have discovered a new trapdoor spider species at Nilgiri in Baleswar district.
The new species has been named “Idiops Nilgiri” after Nilgiri where the spider’s presence was recorded, according to university authorities. This is a medium-size spider that measures about 8-13 mm in length. The new species comes under family Idiopidae representing front-eyed trapdoors.
The new trapdoor species was collected on a road-side cut in a deciduous forest near Nilgiri town during field surveys in 2019 as part of efforts by Asst Prof Sanjay Keshari Das to document spider diversity in the adjacent Kuldiha Wildlife Sanctuary in Odisha.
According to Das, the area is biogeographically important being part of Chhotnagpur Plateau.
The species was later examined in the lab with assistance of MSc Biodiversity students Diksha and Ruhi Asra Khan.
The Journal of Asia Pacific Biodiversity has published about the finding.
Females of trapdoor spiders live in tubular burrow with their walls lined by silk and have a cork-shape lid at the entrance that they use as a door. Males are smaller in size, wandering and occasionally live in burrow particularly in breeding season.
They are nocturnal and open their door to catch prey only during evening hours and, hence, are difficult to locate them during day time.
With this discovery, members of the genus Idiops go up to 95 species worldwide, of which 12 are from India, the varsity said.
The discovery takes global spider count to 48,277 and Indian spider count to 1,910 species of which 263 species are recorded from Odisha, said the varsity.
Among Indian spiders, only 116 species belonging to 33 genera and eighty families are mygalomorph spiders, it added.
Mygalomorphs are relatively large and long-lived spiders (can live about 25 years) and represent primitive spiders that include tarantulas, funnel web and trapdoor spiders. Zoologists believe India’s diversity of these primitive spiders remains under-represented.