Australian spiders: description, species, classification and interesting facts

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:55

Australia is a country where a modern person who does not know her jungles and deserts can only survive in the city, but this is not a fact. There are so many living creatures that pose a danger to humans that the country can be entered in the Guinness Book of Records.

Here is the largest number of poisonous snakes on the planet, and in the waters of the ocean you can encounter a deadly blue-ringed octopus, whose bite causes death, and huge cuttlefish, arranging mating games off the coast.

Famous Australian spiders the size of a plate or running at a speed of meters per second are common "guests" in the homes and cars of local residents.

Three most dangerous spiders in Australia

Although death from a spider bite in the country was last recorded in the 80s of the XX century, the fear of them has been passed down from generation to generation. In this country, children from an early agebegin to get acquainted with animals, insects, reptiles and inhabitants of the ocean, which can harm their he alth or even kill them. Knowing what a possible "offender" looks like has often saved people's lives, as some Australian spiders are not only venomous, but also extremely aggressive.

Sydney funnel-web spider - this arthropod can be recorded as a leader in lethality. The Sydney leuco-web spider (it is also called the funnel spider), having long and strong fangs, prefers to be the first to attack a possible, in its opinion, enemy. He is able to bite through not only the skin, but also the nail of a person, and, as a rule, inflicts several wounds at once with lightning speed, injecting poison into them.

This spider is especially dangerous for children, as they die in just 15 minutes if they are not injected with an antidote that was invented in the 80s of the last century. Before an antidote was found, death rates from funnel spider bites were high.

In second place in terms of threat to human life are the red-backed Australian spiders. They are easily spotted by their bright red stripe on their abdomens, but their venom is also one of the deadliest. An adult human dies from a bite within an hour, experiencing severe pain, sweating and nausea. The elderly and teenagers are especially vulnerable, since some of the body is already weak, while others are not yet strong. If you seek help in time, you can avoid death.

Interesting: red-backed Australian spiders, or rather, their females, are prone to cannibalism and eattheir partners during mating. They are also dangerous for humans, but you should not find out the sex of this arthropod when you meet.

In third place in terms of "harmfulness" to humans, the Australian classification of spiders places the red-headed mouse representative of the arthropod family. This is a fairly large creature, able to feast on not only a small mouse, but also a toad and a lizard that is larger than it.

The bite of this spider is not as toxic as the previous ones, but can deliver a lot of unpleasant moments. It's good that this species is non-aggressive and slow, but judging by their appearance and size, you can't tell.

Australia is a dangerous territory for a person if he does not follow the precautionary rules and does not carry several types of antidotes at once.

Spider-jumps

The Australian jumping spider is an arachnophobe's nightmare, and no wonder. These creatures have 8 eyes that fit in three rows on their head, hairy paws and a rather large abdomen. Although they are unattractive, people need not be afraid of them. Jumping spiders prefer tropical forests, deserts and semi-deserts where people have nothing to do.

As the name implies, these arthropods prefer not to wait for prey in a hole, as, for example, tarantulas do, and not to run after it like a hunter spider, but to jump, often over quite long distances. They even have their own safety line, which they fix where they intend to jump from. This type of spider prefers daytime hunting, and thanks tohairs on its paws can conquer any vertical surface, including glass.

Wolf Spider

These Australian spiders got their name from the habit of living and hunting alone at night in the territory they consider their own. They can hardly be called cute because of their large eyes and hairy legs, but they avoid people, hiding from them in the foliage or in their minks.

The body size of this arthropod rarely exceeds 3 cm, but their legs are quite long. The Australian wolf spider belongs to the category of "jumpers", as it prefers not to chase prey, but to jump on it from ambush, for which it weaves a safety silk web, and when it catches up with prey, it eats it, holding it with its front paws.

Caring for offspring is an amazing feature of this spider species. After mating, the female wraps the eggs in several layers of cobwebs, constructing a kind of cocoon, which she wears for 2 weeks until the spiderlings hatch.

After the appearance of offspring, a caring "mommy" carries them on herself until they learn to hunt on their own. Sometimes there are so many that only her eyes are visible.

As a rule, wolf spiders avoid people and are not dangerous to them, but they can bite if disturbed. Their toxin is not lethal, but causes itching and redness.

The largest spiders in Australia

In the matter of the size of arthropods, this country can also compete. For example, the largest Australian spider is crab, or, as it is also called,hunter. It does not eat crabs and is named so because of the structure of the legs, which curve like a crustacean.

The size of these spiders, together with their paws, reaches 30 cm or more, the color is predominantly black, but there are brown or gray specimens. Fluffy paws, and front ones with clearly visible spikes, do not add beauty to this huge spider.

The hunter is so named because he drives his prey like a real huntsman, moving quickly along the ground. As a rule, these giants avoid people, but they can bite especially annoying ones. Although their venom is not fatal to humans, the bite site is very swollen and sore. The bitten feels weak and dizzy.

Loxosceles

Recluse spiders are quickly becoming the scariest thing thanks to the internet. Their bite is not fatal to humans, but the toxin that is part of its composition does not allow the wound to heal, which sometimes leads to the amputation of an arm or leg.

As a rule, the bite of this small arthropod often goes unnoticed, as it resembles a small needle prick, but after a few hours a person feels itching and pain, which are replaced by fever. If treatment is not carried out immediately, then it can drag on for many months, since the reaction to the poison of the hermit spider is tissue necrosis. It is impossible to restore damaged skin, and sometimes a limb is amputated to save the patient's life.

Unfortunately, hiding from these spiders is difficult. They often hide in shoes and clothes, inboxes, drawers and tables, so Australians should always shake their clothes before putting them on.

The good news is that this killer spider, as it is called, is non-aggressive and never strikes first.

Black house spider

These Australian spiders are the most common inhabitants in gardens, in the crevices of fences and walls, on windows and in the corners of rooms. Females, as a rule, do not leave their web, waiting for the "dinner" to fall into it. Although these small creatures do not look friendly at all, they rarely bite people, and if their web was damaged during the cleaning of the premises, they simply restore it and live there.

White-tailed spider

If the Australian jumping spider catches up with its prey thanks to its ability to push off the surface and make a jump, and the black brownie waits for food in its web, then the white-tailed arthropod species simply catches up with its prey.

He doesn't spin webs and prefers to hide in secret places, often closets or shoeboxes. Its bite is not fatal, but causes severe swelling and pain.

Australian tarantulas

These arthropods would be horror movie stars. Not only are they large, and their fangs reach 1 cm in length, they also live a long time (females up to 30, and males up to 8 years). Their bites are extremely painful for humans, but not fatal, while for animals, such as cats or dogs, everything ends sadly if they are not provided with timely medical assistance.

Interesting facts about the spider "kingdom"

An amazing event in the country was the reaction shown by the Australian flying spiders at the beginning of the flood. Trying to escape the water, they launched thousands of cobwebs into the air, trying to be picked up by the wind and carried away from the danger zone. The result was the earth white from their nets, as the web tightly covered it tens of centimeters in height.

Spiders are interesting and useful creatures, and if left undisturbed, they are harmless. Australians know this, which is why there have been no hospital visits due to their bites for a long time.