Golden Trapdoor Spider: New giant spider species discovered

A new species of spider has been discovered 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!

It was found as part of a campaign called Project Dig which hopes to showcase more of the area's natural world and protect it better.

Dr Michael Rix, who led the team that discovered the new arachnid, described the new species as a "spectacular spider... and a big beautiful species".

"It's very big for a trapdoor spider," said Rix, who is also Queensland Museum's principal scientist and curator of arachnology. "The females of this species can get up to five centimetres in body length."

Dr Jeremy Wilson, one of the scientists, says what he loves about the work is "knowing that that species is now known to everyone and can be protected".

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