Kangaroo Island
“Assassin Spider”: Rediscovered on an Australian island for a species of spider thought to be extinct
The Australian island of Kangaroo Island
© Picture Alliance
After a severe forest fire, scientists believed a rare Australian spider was extinct. But now there was good news.
Kangaroo Island is the third largest island in Australia, it is located in the southwest of the continent and was badly affected by the devastating forest fires last year. Fatal, because a third of the island is a nature reserve and was home to numerous animals – koalas, birds, sea lions and even penguins. Large parts of the vegetation were burned and it will be a long time before nature can recover. But in the areas that were spared by the fire, scientists have now made a surprising discovery.
The team around Dr. Jessica Marsh from the South Australian Museum came across two specimens of a spider species that was actually considered extinct: a rare subspecies of the “Assassin Spider”, which literally translated, somewhat martially, means “killer spider”. The species in the family Zephyrarchaea austini is said to have inhabited the earth for around 140 million years – and, contrary to previous assumptions, still do. The last specimens were spotted in another part of the island that was completely destroyed by an earlier forest fire in 2015. Until then, this region was the only known habitat for the animals. It was not expected that they could have survived anywhere else.
A spider of the Zephyrarchaea austini family
© Wikimedia Commons
The spiders were considered extinct after fires
“This is the first time the species has been seen since severe fires destroyed its only known habitat,” said Jessica Marsh. “We’ve been on the lookout for the spiders ever since and it’s been fantastic to find them now.” The “killer spider” from Kangaroo Island lives exclusively in the foliage close to the ground, as it only forms in untouched nature, and even there only very slowly after disasters such as forest fires. At the same time, it is easily flammable and falls victim to fire particularly quickly. Due to this habitat specialization, the existence of the rare spiders is acutely threatened.
On the other hand, humans are not threatened by the crawfish: the spiders are only about five millimeters in size and are not dangerous to humans. They only got their pompous name because of their relatively powerful jaws, which enable them to hunt other spiders. Another name for the animals is “pelican spider”, as they have an unusually long neck and, due to the pronounced jaw, actually reminds a little of the large birds.
Sources: “Daily Mail”, “News.com.au”