Never seen this before...

[Craig Mackay]

I recently got an Ornithoctonus aureotibialis sling and during it's first night with me it burrowed in and sealed it's burrow in the usual way (or so I thought). Last night before bed I went to check on the spiders and for the first time since I've had it I saw it sitting at the mouth of its burrow with a trapdoor spider style lid above it! I picked up the pot to have a closer look and the sling darted back down it's burrow and the lid came down. Never seen this before with tarantulas. Has anyone else seen this? Although not as well structured as a trapdoor spiders it's a very definate trapdoor and when it was open you could see all the webbing holding it together underneath it. Have I got myself a confused tarantula or is this more common than I realise?

[Phil Rea]

Not heard of it personally in Ornithoctonus spp., or indeed any other Asian species, but within the Africans, Idiothele nigrofulva do construct a trapdoor to seal their burrow

Maybe someone with more knowledge of Asian theraphosids can comment further?

[Richard Gallon]

Two African theraphosid species, one Asian and one from the Americas are known to produce trap-doors.

Here's the first ref to an Ornithoctoninae trap door spider:

Portman, C. 2001. A trap-door theraphosid. Journal of the British Tarantula Society, 16 (2): 59–63.

Cheers,
Richard

[Craig Mackay]

Awesome, thanks. After reading that article and looking at the pics the trapdoor looks very similar. Fascinating and totally unexpected! Tarantula's never fail to surprise and please us

[Stanley A. Schultz]

... I saw it sitting at the mouth of its burrow with a trapdoor spider style lid above it! ...

Just about when you think you have these little monsters down pat they come along with a new trick that blows you away!

This thread isn't worth a Tinker's Damn without photos!

[Craig Mackay]

This thread isn't worth a Tinker's Damn without photos!

I'll see if I can get some tomorrow. It'd be nice to get one with it at the mouth of the burrow but everytime I approach the lid slams shut
I'll get a photo of some description up tomorrow.

Cheers
Craig