This Site is compiled of
both snakes and spiders from our neck of the woods!
!AUSTRALIA!
So be careful and watch where you tread!!
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FUNNEL WEB
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Funnel Web spiders live from Southern Queensland, south into Tasmania and west to the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. The Sydney Funnel Web is large and chocolate brown to black in colour. Males have a prominent spur projecting from the middle part of their second legs, their legs are also longer than that of the female and their bodies are smaller. The male is more venomous than the female. Funnel Web spiders are ground dwellers, they construct tunnel-like ground webs, under rocks, logs or rubbish, they have also been known to wander into house dwellings. Only a few are tree dwellers, making webs in the cracks of the trunks.
DADDY LONG LEGS
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The Daddy Long Legs can grow
to half a hand span with pin sized legs that are long and springy. They spin
their fine, tangled webs in dark corners and are most common in the summer months. It's
venom is harmless
to humans, but strong enough to kill a Red-Back or Huntsman spider, it is the most
venomous of all spiders in Australia.
RED-BACK SPIDER
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The Red-Backed spider is
closely related to the American Black Widow. The Red-Back had been known to have cause
many deaths before an anti-venene was developed in the 1950's. The female Red-Backs have a
glossy black body with a yellowish orange to red stripe running down the middle of the
back. Male Red-Backs are harmless and smaller than the female. Juvenile Red-Backs go
through a series of colour changes before reaching maturity. The Red-Backs are found all
over Australia, they build their sticky, irregular, tangled webs in dry, sheltered areas.
Some spiders bites have
caused no deaths but their bites can cause extreme pain and sickness, serious
enough to seek medical attention. Here are some of these spiders...
WHITE-TAILED SPIDER
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The body of the White-Tailed spiders are roundish and about 1-5 centimetres long. They are dark grey in colour with a prominent white spot at the end of their body. They often dwell in houses, few of them have crawled into peoples shoes thus biting them, the affects of the White-Tailed spider vary from human to human, some have suffered long term affects causing skin rashes and blisters.
HUNTSMAN
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The Shield Huntsman is the
more harmful than that of the common Huntsman. The Huntsman mainly dwell in bushland but
have been found in houses. Their bodies are flat and hairy, and vary in colour, their two
front
legs are longer than their back legs. There is about 100 species of Huntsman.
! harmless, but interesting !
ORB-WEB SPIDER
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One of the most spectacular of these species is the St Andrews Cross spider (shown above), it has alternating yellow and reddish-brown stripes on it's body. The webs have white ribbon like bands of silk which transect the hub of the web, often in the form of a cross.
TRAPDOOR
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The male Trapdoor is brown
in colour and smaller than the female, the colour of the female is more a reddish-brown,
some have a banded appearance on the hind section. The front appendages of the males
are enlarged and resemble boxing gloves. Trapdoors make silk-lined burrows in the ground
with a hinged lid. Some species of the Trapdoor don't make their homes with a lid just and
open burrow.
ANGLING SPIDERS
SORRY NO PIC FOR THIS
LITTLE BLIGHTER,,LATER
Angling spiders are large
bodied, creamy coloured with pink, yellow and brown markings. They make their webs in
leaves of trees and bushes, they dangle a single silk thread with a globule of sticky
silk, they give of
a scent that attracts prey, the spider then swings the sticky silk line in a circle under
it's prey until it catches the prey, then reels it in, thus giving the spider it's name of
the Angling spider.
OOOPPPSSS!!! Looks like I've
run out of space for my slithery friends..OH! well
click snakey and follow him to meet his friends, at a safe distance!!.hehe
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