Trapdoor spiders of the genus Liphistius are known as "living fossils", due to the little morphological changes over long evolutionary timescales. Unfortunately due to poaching, the populations of this species has been dwindling over the years. More to follow... 
Liphistius specialises in building camouflaged lids, or trapdoors to their burrow entrances, with radiating tripwires connected to the circumference of the burrow entrance.
At night, the spider perches right behind the trapdoor, with its legs tapping the edge of its entrance, feeling for pulses on the tripwires....
Once any movement is detected from any of the tripwires, it lunges out in the direction of the movement. While doing so, it always leaves one leg on the burrow entrance so that it knows to return to its burrow.
Liphistius is nocturnal. The burrow is deep, and the spider retreats way back into the burrow in the day.
The males are slender and only leave its burrow in search for a mate. It is said that these guys can only travel a very short distance (~10m) so maintaining a healthy population within a small area is very important. Isolated spiders are unlikely to find mates.
The eye arrangement is bizarre, with all 8 eyes mounted on a turret. Here's a close-up with the eyes highlighted with ultraviolet light.
It is rare to see these spiders outside the burrow, except when triggered by the tripwires. In order to photograph them, we had to tickle the tripwires but it only works 2 or 3 times before the spider gets fed-up with you and refuses to come out anymore.
This was the only time ever that I've seen the spider with prey. Normally it would retreat into its burrow immediately, but perhaps the centipede put up a struggle, so she remained outside for a little while longer to make this shot possible.
Close up of the female. Forgot to mention that my shot of this spider waiting at the burrow entrance was also frequently stolen with a ridiculous message like "Put your hand in there and get a million bucks?".
