Alice Springs Fauna •
Alice Springs Spiders > Alice Springs Spider Index
Alice Springs and Central Australia is home to a number of genus/species of spiders. Among them include the tiny Hackled Orb-weavers (belonging to the family Uloboridae), that are a mere two to three millimetres long. This group of spiders, sometimes spelt Hackled Orbweavers, are also known as Cribellate Orb Weavers and Venomless Spiders.
They capture their prey, wrapping them in silk, then cover it in regurgitated digestive enzymes, then ingesting the liquified body.
A widespread, diverse and common spider, they can often be found around houses, gardens and amongst foliage, where they spin small orb webs.
Whilst some species make a single-line web, others have more complex webs, that can be either solo or joined into colonies. The cribellate silk (sometimes called hackled silk) is feathery and appears fuzzy. The web usually has an orb-web at the heart of the structure, although in some webs this may not be obvious as the orb may be heavily modified, due to damage, with web segments simply pushed aside to make room for the new web. This can create a messy looking web structure.
The front legs of the Uloborids are usually long, often longer than the entire length of the body.
- Scientific classification
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Subphylum: Chelicerata
- Class: Arachnida
- Order: Araneae
- Infraorder: Araneomorphae
- Family: Uloboridae
- Diversity:
- 19 genera, 337 species
Footnote & References
- Hackled orb-weavers, Australian Museum, https://australian.museum/learn/animals/spiders/hackled-orb-weavers/
- ULOBORIDAE Venomless spiders, Arachne.org.au, http://www.arachne.org.au/01_cms/details.asp?ID=1610
- Uloboridae, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uloboridae (last visited Dec. 16, 2022).
Alice Springs SpidersAustralian Golden Orb Weaver Australian Huntsman Spiders (Sparassidae) Backobourkines Banded Garden Spider Beautiful Badge Huntsman (Neosparassus calligaster) Cytaea sp Desert Huntsman Spider Elegant Water Spider (Dolomedes facetus) Gnaphosid (Ground Spider) Hackled Orb-weavers Hortophora sp Long-jawed Orb Weavers Long-tailed St. Andrew’s Cross Spider Lynx Spider (Oxyopidae) Miturgidae (Elassoctenus spp) Neosparassus sp Orange-legged Swift Spider (Nyssus coloripes) Red-headed Mouse Spider Redback Spider (Latrodectus hasselti) Sondra aurea Uloboridae – Cribellate Orb Weavers Wall Spider (Oecobius sp) Zodariidae
Alice Springs FaunaAlice Springs Native Bees Alice Springs Beetles Alice Springs Birds Alice Springs Gastropods (Gastropoda) Alice Springs Insects Alice Springs Marsupials Alice Springs Reptiles Alice Springs Spiders
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