The redback spider is a member of the genus Latrodectus, the widow spiders. It lives in an untidy web in a warm sheltered location, commonly near or inside human residences. It preys on insects, spiders and small vertebrates that become ensnared in its web. It kills its prey by injecting a complex venom through its two fangs when it bites, before wrapping them in silk and sucking out the liquefied insides.
About Redback spider in brief
The redback spider is a member of the genus Latrodectus, the widow spiders. It lives in an untidy web in a warm sheltered location, commonly near or inside human residences. It preys on insects, spiders and small vertebrates that become ensnared in its web. It kills its prey by injecting a complex venom through its two fangs when it bites, before wrapping them in silk and sucking out the liquefied insides. Predominantly neurotoxic to vertebrates, the venom gives rise to the syndrome of latrodectism in humans. The redback is one of the few spider species that can be seriously harmful to humans, and its liking for habitats in built structures has led it to being responsible for a large number of serious spider bites in Australia. The common name \”redback\” is derived from the distinctive red stripe along the dorsal aspect of its abdomen. Other common names include red-striped spider, red-spot spider, jockey spider, Murra-ngura spider, Kapara spider and the Kanna-jeri spider. It has a widespread distribution in Australia, and inadvertent introductions have led to established colonies in New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates, Japan and greenhouses in Belgium. Other species of spider and parasitoid wasps prey on this species. It is also one of few arachnids that usually display sexual cannibalism while mating. After mating sperm is stored in the spermathecae, organs of the female reproductive tract, and can be used up to two years later to fertilise several clutches of eggs.
Each clutch averages 250 eggs and is housed in a round white silken egg sac. An antivenom has been available since 1956 and is available in the UK and the U.S. in the form of a prescription drug called Listerine. It can also be found in the United States, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. The species was first described in 1870 and is thought to originate in South Australia or adjacent Western Australian deserts, but is now found throughout Australia, Southeast Asia and New Zealand. The adult female is easily recognised by her spherical black body with a prominent red stripe on the upper side of her abdomen and an hourglass-shaped redorange streak on the underside. Females usually have a body length of about 10 millimetres, while the male is much smaller, being only 3–4 mm long. In the same paper, he named a female from Cape York with an all-black abdomen L. scelio, now regarded as the species. These specimens are in the Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet in Stockholm, Sweden, which is in the same genus as the redback. Another subspecies, L. corifer from New Guinea, which was later regarded as a subspecies of the red back, was described by Norwegian entomologist Eugene Strand Cambridge in 1911.
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This page is based on the article Redback spider published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 02, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
