Trapdoor spiders are the coolest spiders due to their strange colors, shapes and markings. This sun trapdoor spider likes like it was spray-painted.
Trapdoor spiders are mygalomorphs but unlike tarantulas and wolf spiders are not particularly hairy. They are also not as venomous as funnel web spiders.
Strangely elongated abdomen of a trapdoor spider.
Yet the ravine trapdoor spider has a truncated abdomen.
The ravine trapdoor is called
Cyclocosmia truncata. The blunt end of her abdomen bears an unusual marking that resembles an emblem or a Mayan calendar.
What does she do with that strange flat area? It's very tough and ribbed so she uses it to block the entrance to her burrow. To a small predator looking to snack on a spider or take over her burrow, she blocks it with what may as well be a big slab of concrete. Their burrows are very well disguised and hard to find.
