We think of spiders as fearsome hunters, spinners of webs and treacherous mates, but construction workers? Yes, that too. Some groups of spiders – trapdoor and wolf spiders – dig tunnels that they use to ambush passing insects. But these tunnels can also provide shelter and accommodation for other animals, including one of the rarest of Australia’s lizards – the pygmy blue-tongue lizard. It seems that the lizard’s survival depends entirely on the spiders.

The pygmy blue-tongue is a native of South Australia. It’s so rare that zoologists thought it extinct for over 30 years and it re-emerged in the public eye in the most unlikely way. In 1992, a dead specimen of this supposedly extinct animal was found in