Want a species of spider named after you?

A recently discovered species of Eastern Wishbone Spiders needs a name and Queensland Museum is giving you the opportunity to nominate yourself or someone you know!

How to enter?

Enter the form below with your name, phone number, email and tell us in 25 words or less why we should name the spider after you.

About the Spider

• What is the new species?

  The Mount Glorious Eastern Wishbone Spider is an impressive trapdoor spider, relatively large in size with a black body and two-tone honey-red and black legs. This species belongs to the genus Namea – a diverse group of trapdoor spiders found exclusively in Australia’s tropical and subtropical eastern rainforests.

• Where is this spider found?

  So far, this new species has only been found in rainforest habitats at Mount Glorious, north of Brisbane. Fortunately, much of its rainforest habitat is protected within the stunning D’Aguilar National Park. Click here to learn more.

• What’s special about this spider?

  Like all Eastern Wishbone Spiders of the genus Namea, this species constructs an open entrance hole without a trapdoor, and a Y-shaped underground burrow shaft (hence the common name of ‘wishbone’ spider), one branch of which leads to a concealed second entrance hole. This concealed second entrance is used as an emergency escape shaft when danger threatens. The spiders sit at the entrances of their burrows at night, waiting for passing prey, which they quickly pounce upon. Individuals probably take around five years to mature, and females likely live for over a decade in the wild.

• What does this spider look like? 

  The Mount Glorious Eastern Wishbone Spider is an impressive trapdoor spider, relatively large in size with a black body and two-tone honey-red and black legs. The spider is pictured below.

  

About the Researcher

Michael Rix is a Principal Curator of Arachnology and Research Fellow in the Biodiversity and Geosciences Program at Queensland Museum. The overriding aim of his research is to combine phylogenetic approaches to explore biogeographic and other evolutionary problems, with revisionary taxonomic approaches to describe and conserve species. He has dedicated most of his career to working with collections and to taxonomically documenting the remarkable spider fauna of Australia, and has described 214 species in eight families. As of September 2019, he has described 214 new species of spider.

Donate to the Museum’s Spider research

Did you know spiders play a vital role in our ecosystem? There are more than 10,000 spider species in Australia, but only 30 per cent have a name. Every year Queensland Museum experts discover spider species that are completely new to science. Describing and naming species - the science of taxonomy - is crucial for understanding our natural environment and the impacts of climate change. With your support, we will continue to discover and document Queensland’s spiders, before they are lost forever. Every contribution counts - we can’t do it without you.

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To learn more about the incredible diversity of spiders, visit Spiders – The Exhibition! 

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