Tigidia Singhal

About Tigidia Singhal

• Tigidia singhal is a newly described species of trapdoor spider discovered in the semi-arid grasslands of the Deccan Plateau in Maharashtra.
• Genus and Family: It belongs to the genus Tigidia and the family Barychelidae (brush-footed spiders), within the infraorder Mygalomorphae, which also includes tarantulas and funnel-web spiders.
  • Its discovery brings the number of Tigidia species in India to eight. 
• It is the first record of the genus Tigidia from a semi-arid open natural ecosystem, expanding its known range beyond tropical evergreen and deciduous forests.
• Habitat: It inhabits rocky hilltop grasslands of the Deccan Plateau.
  • Note: Spiders of the genus Tigidia occur only in Madagascar, Mauritius and India. 
• Characteristics:
  • The female spider measures about 15 mm in length.
  • It has black legs covered with greyish bristle-like hairs and a lighter abdomen with chevron-shaped markings.
  • It constructs silk-lined burrows that are generally 4–10 cm deep, have two openings, and are usually located at the edges of rocks where soil retains more moisture.
    • These burrows help protect the spider from desiccation and predators while also enabling efficient capture of prey.
  • Behaviour: It is long-living, sedentary spiders that spend most of their lives in burrows, rarely leaving except to search for a mate.
• Threat: The species faces threats from:
  • land-use change
  • soil extraction
  • tourism-generated plastic waste, and
  • stone quarrying, which destroy its rocky microhabitats.