{"id":84187,"date":"2025-08-21T05:19:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T05:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/84187\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T05:19:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T05:19:08","slug":"mystery-gem-spider-discovered-in-perth-bushland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/84187\/","title":{"rendered":"Mystery ‘gem’ spider discovered in Perth bushland"},"content":{"rendered":"

A mystery variant of a “gem”-like spider has been found in Perth, where no member of the species has been seen for 30 years.<\/p>\n

The teyl trapdoor spider was found in bushland at the University of Western Australia field station in Shenton Park, by researchers from Edith Cowan University and UWA.<\/p>\n

“First described by the late Professor Barbara York Main, the genus name Teyl is derived from Noongar languages as a sign of respect, and roughly translates into meaning ‘shiny stone’,” ECU vice-challencer research fellow Dr Leanda Mason said.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/A rare teyl spider has been discovered in Perth’s bushland. (Dr Leanda Mason)<\/p>\n

Mason said the species in the genus were known for its small size, glossy sheen, and bright colouring – often orange or yellow.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Teyl spiders construct open-holed burrows, with very little silk lining rather than having a lid like many other trapdoor spiders.<\/p>\n

Mason said this makes the burrows very difficult to distinguish, even by an expert.<\/p>\n

“What makes this discovery even more extraordinary is that it appears to be an undescribed species, not yet formally named or studied,” Mason said.<\/p>\n

“This little arachnid is more than a scientific curiosity – it is a jewel of biodiversity. <\/p>\n

“These long-lived spiders with ancient Gondwanan lineages, still persist in one of the few remaining patches of native habitat decimated by clearing and rapid land-use change.”<\/p>\n

The researchers captured a single pregnant female spider for observation, with the mother and the spiderlings to be released back into the wild later at the same site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mystery variant of a “gem”-like spider has been found in Perth, where no member of the species…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-84187","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}