An Australian man revealed a photo of a small hole in his garden where thousands lock their doors and seek shelter.
The man found a deep hole the size of a coin in his backyard and immediately wondered what this could mean.
‘I’m in Adelaide Hills. Can anyone tell me what lives here?’ he asked.
After sharing the photo online, many decided that the hole looked like the abode of a wolf spider or a trapdoor spider.
According to the Australian Museumthe lack of a ‘door’ above the hole was common to both species, as not all make doors for their burrows.
An Australian man revealed a photo of a small hole in his garden where thousands lock their doors and seek shelter
Trapdoor spiders live underground in burrows covered with doors made of leaves or sticks to keep themselves hidden from predators
Hundreds came to the man’s aid and shared stories of encounters with the species.
“That’s probably a hatch spider’s hole,” someone said. “Most don’t actually build doors.”
“There are thousands of these holes in the park opposite my house – they’re all trapdoor spiders,” wrote another. ‘I get a kick out of seeing people sunbathing or sitting on the grass, blissfully unaware of the horror beneath them.’
While others were convinced it was a wolf spider, which lives on the ground in leaf litter or burrows, and is often found in lawns and gardens.
“Definitely a Lycosidae spider den (wolf spider),” another countered. ‘Unfortunately there are fewer and fewer trap doors; the vast majority of dens you find (anywhere from your lawn to native woodland) will be wolf spider dens.”
“I’ll never forget the time I tried to catch and release a large wolf spider under a dumpster, only to find it covered in hundreds of baby wolf spiders – small enough to escape in all directions,” one woman said.
According to the Australian Museum, the lack of a ‘door’ above the hole was common among hatch spiders, as not all of them make doors for their burrows.