The closest relative of Kangaroo Island’s trapdoor spider lives in South Africa - and the arachnid could have arrived in Australia by oceanic migration.
The last thing the spider saw before everything went black.
Flickr/Nicola Albertini
Spider silk is strong stuff and could be used to manufacture ultra tough ropes and cables, and better sutures in medicine. If only we could find a way to make the stuff.
Just another of Australia’s creepy crawlies… but will it kill you?
Flickr/
Australia’s snakes, spiders and other venomous critters tend to strike fear in many people. But is Australia’s reputation as a nation of deadly creatures deserved?
Biologists, along with most of the internet, have been puzzled as to why peacock spiders have such flamboyant courtship displays. So we decided to find out.
Spiders such as this funnel-web (Hadronyche infensa) will only bite if threatened.
Scientists in Japan have discovered a new species of wasp that induces a zombie-like state in spiders in order to manipulate them into protecting the wasp’s own offspring.