Trapdoor spiders fact sheet

What are trapdoor spiders?

Trapdoor spiders are a medium sized arachnid with short, blunt spinnerets. Like all spiders their body is made up of a cephalothorax and abdomen with four pairs of legs.

Trapdoor spiders belong to a group of spiders called mygalomorphs as they have downward facing fangs.

Australia has more species of trapdoor spider than any other country.

Trapdoor spider

Trapdoor spiders have downward facing fangs.

Where do trapdoor spiders live?

Many trapdoor spider species are found in dry habitats to which they are adapted.

Trapdoor spiders build burrows up to 30 to 40 centimetres deep in the ground and along embankments. Burrows are often lined with spider silk at the entrance. This trapdoor spider burrow has been extracted from a rock. How long is it?

Some species of trapdoor spiders close their burrows with thick plug doors whilst others build doors with ornate extensions. These doors are highly camouflaged making them almost undetectable to the human eye. As the trapdoor spider grows each year so must its burrow and door. Because of this some doors look like the rings of a tree as a rim is added each year.

Despite what their name suggests most species of trapdoor spiders do not actually build a door for their burrows.

The door of trapdoor spiders can be difficult to find when closed as they are covered in soil, lichen and moss.

What do trapdoor spiders eat?

Common prey items for trapdoor spiders include invertebrates such as crickets, moths, beetles and grasshoppers.

Without a web to catch flying insects, trapdoor spiders must physically catch their prey. Trapdoor spiders wait until a prey item is near the entrance to their burrow before capturing it with their chelicerae – their pincer-like claws in front of their mouth.

Trapdoor spiders are called ambush predators as they hide and wait for their prey in their burrows.

What eats trapdoor spiders?

Birds, bandicoots, centipedes, scorpions and parasitic wasps prey on trapdoor spiders.

Trapdoor spiders hide in their burrows to escape predators.

How do trapdoor spiders reproduce and what is their life cycle?

During humid weather adult male trapdoor spiders will wander in search of a mate. Male and female trapdoor spiders mate inside the female spider’s burrow. If lucky, the male will escape the burrow without being eaten by the female!

Female trapdoor spiders lay their eggs inside their burrow several months after mating. Hatchlings remain in the burrow for another several months before leaving to make their own miniature burrows.

Female spiders will stay in or near their burrows until they mature. When mature, males will leave their burrows to search for a mate.

Deep burrows are a safe place for trapdoor spider eggs to hatch.

On average, trapdoor spiders can live between 5 and 20 years. The longest-lived spider ever recorded is a female trapdoor spider found in Western Australia named Number 16. She lived for 43 years!

Related fact sheets

More invertebrate fact sheets

• Invertebrate fact sheets – overview
• Arachnids fact sheet – overview (body parts, arachnid groups and huntsman case study)
• St Andrew’s Cross spider fact sheet – another orb-web spider for comparison
• Huntsman spider fact sheet – large active hunting spider (no web)
• Golden orb weaving spider fact sheet – another large orb-weaving spider for comparison

Habitats and ecosystems

• Field of Mars Reserve fact sheet

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