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Redback Spider

Latrodectus Hasseltii

The white markings on the female abdomen (above) indicate her age and are shed molt by molt. She was discovered with a leg missing and is a medium sized specimen at about 10mm

This very large female lived in a knot-hole at the bottom of the outside rear wall of my garage. She would often sleep outside in her web and would leap into cover as soon as I turned the corner despite my being several feet away and moving as silently as I could.. It took many attempts to get the photo and even then she was racing for her little hole in the wall. I think she died of old age and didn't breed. The spot she lived in was totally surrounded by hordes of other species and was exposed.

It was surprising place to find a Red Back Spider and more surprising to me was the position of her red "hour glass". I thought only her relatives in other countries had such prominent belly colors

Red Back Spiders and their relatives are known the world over and have been universally feared and despised for their deadly venom and their quickness to bite

If you are looking for treatment or further information about that side of these spiders you can Google it or check my site information page (off the home page)for links to other informational sites

The smaller female in these photographs (right) is about the size of a dried pea. She was captured under the roller door of the garage where she had set-up house after the door was out of use for a long time.

She was quite inactive while being handled although that may have been the fact that she was sitting on a plastic item rather than a bit of something she could whip a fang into.

Red Back Spiders are hunters of spiders and other insects but surprisingly are themselves prey to spiders most people call daddy-long-legs. I will cover them elsewhere. The Red Back to the right was probably hunted and eaten by that type of spider as they have colonized the space she once inhabited