>the research is the life’s work of Barbara York Main, now 88, who first set eyes on Number 16 shortly after its birth. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2018/04/27/farewell-no-1...
>The female Giaus Villosus, or trapdoor spider — Number 16, as she was known to researchers — met her maker in October, after being attacked by a parasitic wasp in Western Australia’s Central Wheatbelt
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>This is how she did it – in 1974, she mapped out the burrows of several dozen spiders living in a segment of bushland reserve near her family farm.
>“I wanted to know how long the spiders lived, and whether there was any difference between male and female maturation.” She’s observed that the male leaves his burrow at maturity, around seven to nine years old, to wander in search of a mate, after which he dies. The female stays put, raising hatchlings inside the protection of her burrow, which she temporarily seals up with a mud plug. She lives on, and on…
>“I’ve got one spider from the original cohort that’s still alive,” she adds. I do a quick calculation – if she first found it in 1974, that would mean the spider is forty or so years old? “Yes.” http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/ba...
The farm is near https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammin,_Western_Australia by the way
More on Ms Main https://phys.org/news/2015-02-lifelong-spiderwoman.html