RESEARCHERS have discovered a new trapdoor spider species, Tigidia singhal, in the rocky semi-arid grasslands near the Rehekuri Blackbuck Sanctuary in Karjat tehsil of Ahilyanagar district of Maharashtra. The discovery has been published in the latest issue of Arachnology, the journal of the British Arachnological Society.

The spider belongs to the Barychelidae family, known for building silk-lined underground burrows hidden beneath camouflaged trapdoors. It ambushes insects, and occasionally small reptiles or mammals, by suddenly opening the trapdoor.