''Troglodiplura samankunani'' is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

troglomorphic Troglomorphism is the morphological adaptation of an animal to living in the constant darkness of caves, characterised by features such as loss of pigment, reduced eyesight or blindness, and frequently with attenuated bodies or appendages. The ter ...

spider Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and ran ...

in the family

Anamidae Anamidae is a family of Australian mygalomorph spiders. It was first described as a tribe by Simon in 1889, then raised to the subfamily Anaminae of the family Nemesiidae, before being raised to a family level by Opatova et al. in 2020. Taxonomy ...

, found in

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

, in caves on the

Nullarbor Plain The Nullarbor Plain ( ; Latin: feminine of 'no' and 'tree') is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country of southern Australia, located on the Great Australian Bight coast with the Great Victoria Desert to its no ...

. It was first described in 2020 by Mark Harvey and Michael Rix. The species epithet honours Saman Kunan (a Thai diver, who died during the

Tham Luang cave rescue In June/July 2018, a junior association football team became trapped for fifteen days in Tham Luang Nang Non, a cave system in Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand, but were ultimately rescued. Twelve members of the team, aged 11 to 16, and ...

of 2018).

References

Anamidae Spiders of Australia Taxa named by Mark Harvey Taxa named by Michael G. Rix Spiders described in 2020 {{Anamidae-stub