Ant-eating Spider
S1, Female, Eye Arrangement
Redback
S40, Male, dorsal
Animals
Plants
Info
| Ant-eating Spider S1, Female, Eye Arrangement | | Redback S40, Male, dorsal | | ||
Animals Plants Info |
 | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Spiders, Scorpions, Mites & Ticks (Arachnida) | |||
| Order: | Spiders (Araneae) | ||||
| Family: | Comb-footed Spider (Theridiidae) iNaturalist Observation | ||||
| Species: | Redback (Latrodectus hasseltii) | ||||
| This Photo: | S19, Male, dorsal | ||||
| Synonym: | Latrodectus hasselti | ||||
Thank you Anthony Paul for confirming the id of this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA), the Adelaide Hills and elsewhere S47 was one of the largest we've seen with a body & head length of ~12mm, and a natural leg span of ~38mm. Adult males are much smaller at ~3mm. A poisonous spider that can be lethal, but very, very rarely. Poisoning usually occurs due to picking up material off the ground without gloves. They love corrugated iron. They are generally black with a dark red diamond shaped stripe on their abdomen which extends from the top all the way round underneath. The stripe goes bright red when threatened. Diagnostically only the red hour glass underneath is relevant. As such, they can be missing the red stripe on top, are often brown not black, and also often have white stripes. These originated in the North-western Deserts of South Australia. They have become cosmopolitan (ie travel with humans) to other locations outside their native range. | |||||
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