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Mysterious, new tarantula-like spider identified in the Florida Everglades

By Christina Zdanowicz, CNN

Updated: Mon, 03 May 2021 22:22:45 GMT

Source: CNN


The Pine Rockland Trapdoor Spider lives in the Florida Everglades and it's a rare breed. It has only been spotted a handful of times since the 1920s and only recently did the clever arachnid get its name for the habitat it lives in, according to Rebecca Godwin, an assistant professor of biology at Piedmont University.

These spiders likely only live in the pine rockland habitat of southern Florida, which is "highly threatened," Godwin told CNN. Their homeland of pines growing on limestone outcrops has slowly been destroyed by mankind.



"The fact that a new species like this could be found in a fragment of endangered forest in the middle of the city underscores the importance of preserving these ecosystems before we lose not only what we know, but also what is still to be discovered," Frank Ridgley, Zoo Miami Conservation & Veterinary Services Manager, said in a news release.

Finding and collecting enough examples of the spider has been tricky.

A zookeeper checking reptile research traps at Zoo Miami snapped a photo of the large-bodied spider in 2012 and two years later, another one was found. The mysterious spider didn't match any species on record, the zoo said in a press release.


"It was really exciting for me," Godwin said. "Even only having one to two specimens, I was already pretty sure it was a new species."


"If one were to call spiders beautiful, I find it a very gorgeous looking spider," Godwin said.




While they are venomous -- most spiders are -- the venom of the Pine Rockland Trapdoor Spider is not "medically important," Godwin said. Translation: The venom isn't dangerous to humans.


"Venoms of related species have been found to contain compounds with potential use as pain medications and cancer treatments," Ridgley said.


"I feel like working on spiders, you spend a lot of your time just fighting bad press," Godwin said. "It's an uphill battle to point out these are helping organisms, if anything. They don't carry any diseases to give to humans, they are not aggressive and literally live underground."


The Pine Rockland Trapdoor Spider and other previously "unknown diversity" are what fascinate Godwin the most about our planet. She wants to keep studying spiders like this one, who lives in a habitat "in peril," before that's lost, she said.

"I'm continually blown away about how little we know about what is out there living on the planet with us," Godwin said. "There are so many species getting lost, going extinct before we even knew they ever existed."


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