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Is Euoplos dignitas dangerous? Scientists discover 'magnificent' new species of spider in Australia

Scientists from the Queensland Museum have uncovered and described a brand-new species of trapdoor spider that can only be found in the Brigalow Belt

QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA: Australia can now add a new spider to its inventory of animals as a new species was formally cataloged in Queensland. Scientists from the Queensland Museum have uncovered and described a brand-new species of trapdoor spider that can only be found in Central Queensland's Brigalow Belt.

The large trapdoor spiders of the newly discovered species called "Euoplos dignitas" reside in open woodland environments and dig their tunnels in the dark soils of Central Queensland.

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'It's a big, beautiful species'

As per 7News, the name, which reflects the spider's magnificent size and character, is derived from the Latin word "dignitas", which means dignity or magnificence. "It's a big, beautiful species," said Dr Michael Rix, the Queensland Museum's main curator of arachnology. It also pays tribute to Project DIG, which helped fund the study's fieldwork, genetic research, and laboratory work.

Only a small number of places in Central Queensland, around Eidsvold and Monto, are known to have this species. Due to land clearing, Euoplos dignitas possibly falls under the category of endangered species. Although not as dangerous to humans, trapdoor spiders can be mistaken for funnel-web spiders.

”What I really love about the type of work we get to do here at the Queensland Museum,” Dr Jeremy Wilson, research assistant of arachnology at Queensland Museum, said. “You get to come into the collection and look through specimens from across Australia and you just never know what you’re going to find. When you then get to see that through to the end, which is giving a name to that species and knowing that, that species is now known to everyone and can be protected,” he added.

Spiders are one of nature's greatest evolutionary success stories

As per Queensland Museum, the mygalomorph spiders (trapdoor, tarantula, funnel-web, and their cousins) and the araneomorph spiders are the two major groups of spiders found in Australia (all other species, including jumping spiders, orb-weaving spiders, huntsman spiders, crab spiders, and wolf spiders, among many others).

In Queensland, both primary types are numerous and quite diversified, however, mygalomorph spiders are typically challenging to see due to their typically inactive, burrowing lives. Contrarily, the vast majority of species (by number) that are often observed by people are araneomorph spiders.

Spiders (order Araneae) have evolved for more than 300 million years and are found in almost all terrestrial ecosystems around the planet. They are one of nature's greatest evolutionary success stories. With over 50,000 identified species, spiders are currently one of the biologically diverse lineages of life on Earth.