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Spider Discovery

A new species of spider has been discovered right here in Australia.


The eight-legged giant is a type of Golden Trapdoor Spider and was found in forests in Queensland, in the North East of Australia.


The rare spiders can grow up to 5cm long, so they're about 1cm bigger than a milk bottle top. Making it huge in terms of trapdoor spiders!


The scientists who discovered them say they could already be endangered because of loss of woodland in the area.


The Giant Trapdoor Spider is a kind of trapdoor spider, which hides in a hole covered by leaves in the day.


At night though, it opens its leaf trapdoor and jumps out to capture insects for food.

Its official scientific name is euoplos dignitas. If you translate dignitas from Latin to English it means dignity or greatness, which was chosen to reflect the spider's size.


It's thought the adult female spiders may be able to live up to 20 years old.


Although they use venom filled fangs when hunting, they wouldn't be deadly to humans, though their bite may be painful!

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