Spider fame for Thai cave rescue heroes
Rare cave-dwelling spiders found only on the Nullarbor Plain have been named after the Thai cave heroes who rescued a group of boys from almost certain death.
Rare cave-dwelling spiders found only in pitch black caves on the Nullarbor Plain have been named after the Thai cave heroes who rescued a group of boys from almost certain death in a flooded cave.
The four new spider species have fangs, no eyes and elongated legs, but are considered to be the world’s most specialised cave-dwelling spiders.
That quality has led the Western Australian Museum to offer a fitting tribute to two rescuers who died and two Australian expert divers who conducted the daring rescue in 2018.
Craig Challen and Richard Harris, joint winners of the 2019 Australian of the Year award, have each had a spider species named in their honour: Troglodiplura challeni for Dr Challen and Troglodiplura harrisi for Dr Harris.
“Both men are active explorers of cave ecosystems in Australia and passionate about their conservation,” said WA Museum lead scientist Mark Harvey. He said two other new spider names commemorate Beirut Pakbara and Saman Kunan, who both died as a result of the rescue. Their posthumous credits now include Troglodiplura beirutpakbarai and Troglodiplura samankunani.
Dr Challen said his cave explorations rarely included studying cave biology, although he saw spiders. “Anyone can have an asteroid named after them but having a cave spider named after me is a singular honour.”
WA has hundreds of rare spider species, including trapdoor spiders, many not yet named. “Each of these species occurs in single caves on the Nullarbor Plain and each is extremely rare,” Dr Harvey said.
“Conserving the caves is the only way to conserve these ancient, irreplaceable spiders.”
The search to identify the spider varieties involved a theory they might be close relatives of South American spiders, he said, but DNA revealed they were found only in Australia and their status as expertly equipped cave dwellers “has far-reaching and positive implications about their evolution”.
Dr Harvey said the new species were “unbelievably rare” because no cavers have seen them alive.
“I visited three sites in the Nullarbor caves in 2017, and only saw two spider skins sitting on top of a rock.
“That means they walk around but the lack of sightings suggests they may live deep in recesses where humans can’t crawl,” he said.
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