Red-headed Mouse Spider
S6, Male, Spinnerets
Red-headed Mouse Spider
S6, Male, Blue Full Abdomen
Animals
Plants
Info
| Red-headed Mouse Spider S6, Male, Spinnerets | | Red-headed Mouse Spider S6, Male, Blue Full Abdomen | | ||
Animals Plants Info |
 | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Spiders, Scorpions, Mites & Ticks (Arachnida) | ||||||||||||
| Order: | Spiders (Araneae) | |||||||||||||
| Family: | Mouse Spider (Mygalomorph:Actinopodidae) iNaturalist Observation | |||||||||||||
| Species: | Red-headed Mouse Spider (Missulena occatoria)| This Photo: | 🔍S5, Male, Empty Abdomen🔎 | Thank you Matthew Lindsey (Huttonia) for confirming the id of this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere Only the much smaller males have the red head/carpace & chelicerae while the females are primarily black, occasionally with red chelicerae. The chelicerae are huge, compared to the body size, making them look quite fearful. We don't see them often but finally caught one yesterday, to measure it's vitals and then released. The male weighed 0.1gms, and only ~10mm long (head & body). The male palps have an obviously red papal bulb & long embolus. It has short spinnerets and hairy black legs. The carpace is smooth/hairless, while the abdomen & cephalothorax have short hairs. The abdomen is blue; of all things. This genus has a very widely spread eye arrangment, unusual for a mygalomorph. 6 of the eyes are shaded by black, while 2 with none are difficult to see. They are an "old world" (or primative) spider partially because their fangs point down. This is considered to be a less efficient killing machine (they can see their prey when they envenomate). Modern day spiders have hi-tech sideways pointing fangs, not needing to lift the head to kill it's prey. Red headed mouse spiders don't use their venom very much (according to Qld Museum); thankfully as they are as toxic as it's cousin the Sydney Funnel Web. For bit treatment, Funnel Web Spider anti-venom works as well. But it's best not to get bitten in the first place.
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