Whip Spider
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creative commons
Fast Facts
-
Classification
- Genus
- Ariamnes
- Species
- colubrinus
- Family
- Theridiidae
- Super Family
- Araneoidea
- Order
- Araneae
- Class
- Arachnida
- Phylum
- Arthropoda
- Kingdom
- Animalia
-
- Size Range
- 20 mm long, 1 mm wide
Introduction
Whip Spiders get their name from their elongate, worm-like body shape.
Identification
Whip Spiders get their name from their elongate, worm-like body shape.
Habitat
Whip Spiders are common in forest habitats and can readily be seen in gardens on summer nights, suspended on delicate silk lines in spaces among shrubbery.
Distribution
Feeding and diet
Whip Spiders specialise in feeding on wandering spiders, usually juveniles. The spider sits at the top of a few long silk threads that run downs below it among foliage. When a wandering spider walks up one of these handy silk `bridges' it gets a nasty surprise. The waiting Whip Spider uses toothed bristles on the end segment of the last leg to comb out swathes of entangling sticky silk from its spinnerets. These rapidly entangle the struggling victim so that it cannot escape.
