Haida Gwaii was in the news this week after a Vancouver Island woman crossed paths with a Pacific folding door spider.
On April 24, Krysten Leigh was walking her dog in Langford when she noticed the eight-legged critter, also known as Antrodiaetus pacificus, on the sidewalk.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Leigh told Black Press Media. “I thought it had to be fake because I’d never something that big.”
In interviews following Leigh’s discovery, Royal BC Museum entomology collections manager Claudia Copley noted that Pacific folding door spiders have also been found on Haida Gwaii, including one specimen from as early as the 1930s.
However, Copley told the Observer she did not cite Haida Gwaii because the spiders are necessarily more prevalent on the islands. Rather, she was simply trying to demonstrate the wide range of the spider, which is also known to live along the coast in the U.S.
“This species ranges all along the coast of B.C. and south into the states as well, always coastal,” she said, adding that they grow to about 5 centimetres in length when they mature and, as a relative of tarantulas, some females live up to 20 years.
They are called folding door spiders because they use a door made from silk and dirt to surprise prey.
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While the spiders are not rare, Copley said they are rare to see.
“This was quite an unusual find,” she said. “Even though they’re native to Vancouver Island, they usually stay in their burrows underneath lawns and in old growth forests most of their lives.”
What makes it more unusual is that Leigh saw a female spider, as is apparent due to the relatively large abdomen.
Only males are known to come out of hiding during mating season in the fall, so Copley believes something disturbed the burrow of the spider Leigh saw, perhaps a sprinkler being activated or some digging.
“They pose no danger to us because they aren’t venomous,” she added. “They eat pests like earwigs, [insects and smaller spiders]. To be honest, they’re pretty impressive.”
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— With files from Aaron Guillen
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