Another spider thread

This is a lovely little spider is an adult female Zoropsis spinimana
They are native to Spain and a few countries along the Med (it has also been accidentally introduced to North America).
They are very similar to wolf spiders but have a slightly different eye arrangement. They have a legspan of 4cm-5cm. They are nocturnal hunters and have very good eye sight. They are also extremely agile, good at jumping and are quite aggressive, which is why some photos are through plastic. 🙂

Dorsal view

Ventral view

This is a female gravid (up the duff)

The female has been taking great care of her egg sack and standing guard for three weeks. Over the weekend she was seen roaming around her enclosure so I had a look to make sure the eggs were ok (they are very susceptibly to mould). Luckily I found some lovely little slings.

Zoropsis spinimana normally have between 50-60 eggs (depending) so it looks like she has done well. They are a hardly little sling and should be mature in 7-8 months or so.
Slings are 2mm aprox

Here’s another close up of an adult female

And her having a crap. 😀

*Applauds*

Cool, – we moved a load of bricks out of our garden yesterday and disturbed these two beauties

*appreciates from behind sofa*

Very nice find Dezb
The first looks like a Tegenaria duellica and the second a Steatoda grossaif you haven’t ID’d them. The feather I’m guessing a pigeon 🙂

Did you see any egg sacks near them?
Edit, that Tegenaria duellica is a well fed male.

No I hadn’t id’d them, thanks! Is the tegenarria duellica a wolf spider?

Oh and the wife seems to think the Steatoda grossa can give a nasty bite.. true?

No they are from the Agelenidae family, wolf spider are from the Lycosidae family. Agelenidae will have slightly different eye alignments and web.There may be other taxonomical differences too. The steatoda can bite and it could hurt a bit, depending if there are ant allergic reactions. Nothing worse than a mild wasp sting though.

Ah, I wondered about the taxonomical* differences.

* I have no idea what this is 😉

Well they are similar to wolf spiders but are not wolf spiders. There are a few things unique to them which gives them their own grouping. They are from the Tegenaria geneus which is from the Agelenidae family of Araneae if that helps 🙂

Though according to wiki

With speeds clocked at 9.73 ft/s (2.97 m/s), the giant house spider (which your is) held the Guinness Book of World Records for top spider speed until 1987

Nice! I shall name him Speedy 🙂

Roper

Please can you tell me about the Huntsman spider and the White tale, I want to move to Adelaide Australia and although spiders freak me right out, I have a strange obsession with them! I find them really interesting but if one were to land on my head I reckon I would either be sick, poo myself or pass out with irrational fear! more than likely I’d do all three! I’m slowly getting used to having them around and have let one live in the shed for a while now but I still have a quick look for him tho brrrrr chills down my spin just thinking about them!

cheers Scott

Hello Scott. I understand the fear some people have of Spiders even though I collect them and rummage around bushes, trees and rock on a weekly basis. I just treat them with enough respect to see them as the wild animals they are rather than play things. Once you are familiar with them, their behaviour, what they like and dislike and can read their body language, there is very little to worry about. We are not prey to spiders so they would not look to find and bit us. People only tend to get bitten when they provoke a bite. In most cases I would rather be bitten by a spider than a bigger animal like a dog.

To gauge how dangerous a spider is can be a difficult thing. Some of the spider which have the most potent venom to humans are hardly seen and then hardly ever bite unless provoked. Then again there are other which are more aggressive but their bite is not a severe. It can also depend if the person bitten has any allergies to the venom, which can be quite a factor in the severity of the bite. Tarantulas are some of the biggest spiders in the world, some of which are in OZ, but there has never been a recorded human death to tarantula venom.
As far as I know the most dangerous spider in Oz is probably the Sydney funnel-web ( Atrax robustus and no-one has died from a bite for years, though this is largely due to anti venom being very common. I don’t think the Australian huntsman or white tail are deadly to humans and if you did have a bad reaction to a bite you would be near drugs which could sort it out pretty quickly.
If the fear of spiders is putting you off from moving you could contact your local zoo or bug house. They might have arachnophobia days to help you understand spider a bit better and help with your fear.
They are fascinating things, can be quite stunning in markings and very odd in behaviour. A lot os spider geeks started out as arachnophobes so be careful, you could end up becoming quite a fan.