A team of scientists led by The University of Western Australia has discovered two new species of trapdoor spiders in the Kimberley region, marking the first time members of the species have been found in northern Australia.
The newly identified arachnids – Kwonkan fluctellus and Kwonkan nemoralis – were described in a paper published this month in the Australian Journal of Taxonomy, expanding scientific understanding of Australia's unique spider fauna.
Lead author Dr Jeremy Wilson, a postdoctoral research fellow in UWA's School of Biological Sciences and research associate with the Western Australian Museum, was part of the group that found them during an Australian Government-supported Bush Blitz expedition to the remote northern Kimberley in 2022.
"We didn't discover these spiders in the typical dry savannah landscapes the Kimberley is known for, but instead the specimens we found of Kwonkan nemoralis, which grows to around the size of a 20-cent coin, were located deep within a gorge that shelters patches of richer forest," Dr Wilson said.
