Death of world's oldest spider leaves scientists 'miserable'

(RNN) – The world’s oldest spider recently died, and the science community mourned the loss of an arachnid whose life overlapped the Vietnam War.

The female trapdoor spider – which, despite its name, is a spider known for its burrows which don't necessarily have doors – lived to be 43 years old, according to Australian scientists who published their findings in the journal Pacific Conservation Biology.

“To our knowledge this is the oldest spider ever recorded," said Leanda Mason, a PhD student at Curtin University in Australia, and lead author of the study. “And her significant life has allowed us to further investigate the trapdoor spider’s behavior and population dynamics.”

The spider was a Gaius villosus Rainbow, a “burrowing, sedentary” type native to Western Australia, reportedly known as “Number 16.” It was first tracked in 1974 at North Bungulla Reserve by scientist Barbara York Main, now 88.

Her detailed records allowed the research team to place the spider’s age, Mason said.

“Through Barbara’s detailed research, we were able to determine that the extensive life span of the trapdoor spider is due to their life-history traits, including how they live in uncleared, native bushland, their sedentary nature and low metabolisms,” she said.

Just how researchers knew a particular spider was a particular age was a subject of some discussion on Twitter.

According to Curtin University, “Number 16” smashed the previous record for spider longevity – a 28-year-old Mexican tarantula.

Mason told The Telegraph “we’re really miserable" about the spider's death.

“We were hoping she could have made it to 50 years old,” she said.

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