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🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨

Trapdoor Spiders are a medium-sized mygalomorph (an infraorder of spiders), spiders that construct burrows with a cork-like trapdoor made of soil, vegetation and silk.

Trapdoor spiders make up the family Ctenizidae of the order Araneae. The species is common in the southwestern United States.

A Trapdoor spider does not have a web like other spiders do. It has a trapdoor on top of a burrow. A Trapdoor spiders burrow is around 30 centimetres deep and 5 centimetres across. Sometimes they like to make their burrows beside creeks or rivers so they can catch little fish.
Trapdoor spider colony - Image source
Trapdoor spider colony – Image source

The trapdoor that these spiders construct is difficult to see when it is closed because of the plant and soil materials that effectively camouflage it. The trapdoor is hinged on one side with silk.

The spiders, who are usually nocturnal, typically wait for prey while holding onto the underside of the door with the claws on their tarsi (the cluster of bones in the foot between the tibia and fibula and the metatarsus).

Prey is captured when insects or other arthropods venture too close to the half-open trapdoor at night. The spider detects the prey by vibrations and when it comes close enough, the spider jumps out of its burrow and captures it. Female Trapdoor spiders never travel far from their burrows.

A Trapdoor spiders enemies include wasps, scorpions and people. If a wasp finds the burrow it will quickly run into the spiders burrow and sting the spider. The only way to save itself is for the spider to hold the door with its fangs.

The wasp usually wins, because it cuts the lid of the burrow with its sharp fangs. When they have stung the spider the wasps lay their eggs (usually one per spider) on its body. Other predators of Trapdoor Spiders can include birds, bandicoots, centipedes, scorpions, parasitic wasps and flies.

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