World’s Oldest Spider Dies Aged 43
The world’s oldest known spider, affectionately known as Number 16, has died at the age of 43 – and here’s me thinking spiders only lived for a couple of months. The spider in question is a trapdoor spider (Giaus Villosus) and has been under observation since its birth in 1974 in Australia.
No. 16 outlived the previous record-holder, which was a tarantula in Mexico, by 15 years after the tarantula died at 28 years old. Number 16 had been watched all of her life by Barbara York Main, who dedicated her life to observing the trapdoor spider since it was born just over four decades ago.
Female trapdoor spiders are some of the only spiders that don’t really travel anywhere in life – only venturing a few meters from their burrows for food. Male trapdoor spiders are the trapdoor spiders people usually encounter as they travel from their burrows to find a mate, but Number 16 has stayed where she was born her whole life.
Barbara’s life’s work is published in the Pacific Conservation Biology Journal, with the study’s lead author Leanda Mason saying:
“To our knowledge this is the oldest spider ever recorded and her significant life has allowed us to further investigate the trapdoor spider’s behaviour and popular dynamics. Through Barbara’s detailed research, we were able to determine that the extensive life span of the trapdoor spider is due to their life-history traits, including how they live in uncleared, native bushland, their sedentary nature and low metabolisms.”
Mason and other researchers were saddened to hear about Number 16’s death, hoping that she would have made it to half a century old.
