VADODARA: India's largest trapdoor spider has been found in Dang district of Gujarat. The three centimetres (cm) long spider was documented by researchers from MS University's (MSU) Department of Zoology. The spider which belongs to the genus (class) 'Idiops' was also reported for the first time in Gujarat. Trapdoor spider is known to grow to the size of 1.5 cm.The presence of this species in Gujarat has been identified by professor Dolly Kumar and her team as part of an Arachnid biodiversity study of Gujarat sanctioned by Gujarat Biodiversity Board (GBB)."The burrows of the spiders that we found in Dang were two to three times deeper as compared to the known species from the rest of India. These spiders can live up to 12 years and are also good ecological models and important in the study of conservation," said professor Kumar who carried out the study along with her students Nimisha Garwasis and Archana Yadav."Trapdoor spider has been reported from Africa, south and central America and the Indian subcontinent. In India, the species has been found in Orissa, Eastern Ghats, Maharashtra, and Southern India. Nocturnal by nature, the spider's existence has been threatened by deforestation and soil erosion," said Dr Manju Siliwal, an arachnologist who was part of the project."The females of this species spend their entire lives in the same burrow unless the burrow is either disturbed or damaged. We found the spider in a tubular burrow on a mud embankment while carrying out our spider survey in Dang. The males comparatively make smaller burrows and their life span is lesser than the females," added Siliwal."The spiders get their name from the tube like burrows they build in the ground that is capped with a trap door. The burrow is used by the spider as a shelter from elements and predators. The top portion of the door of the burrow is camouflaged with soil, twigs, dry leaves and other debris that make its identification very difficult," said Garwasis. The study is being carried out as a part of the faunal biodiversity project by the GBB.