 |
|
|
|
Venoms
Educational
Feeder Insect
Custom Services
Contact
Wanted
Try our new Online Shop This site is being revised and updated. Expect broken links and empty pages for next few days and contact us by phone or email if you cannot find what you are looking for. |
TheridiidaeCobweb, Combfooted or Gumfooted Web Spiders
The family Theridiidae includes some of most familiar and infamous spiders. Almost everyone has heard about the infamous black widow spider and just about everyone has at least one or two species in and/or around their home. This family gets its common names from its web and the way the spiders can comb or throw silk from their spinnerets. At first glance, webs look like tangled messes but there is intricate structure and function. There is a central platform or dome supported by numerous guy lines. Numerous gumfooted lines extend downward from the platform to ground or other surface. These have droplets of glue near their ends that trap crawling insects and the spiders race down these lines and throw or comb glue and silk over the prey, eventually hauling them up into the web for feeding. This is an enormous family, with thousands of species with innumerable specializations. Some, like Argyrodes have adapted to living in the webs of other spiders, frequently other theridiids. Euryopsis has abandoned webs and simply grabs ants, then dashes as fast as possible to the nearest overhang to drop from a thread, where other ants cannot attack it when they respond to the prey's alarm pheromones. Tidarren construct and hide in little huts suspended in their webs and Latrodectus (black widows) extend a bridge from the platform to a silk-lined hidden retreat. These strategies, combined with very potent venoms, enable Theridiids to take prey hundreds of times larger than themselves. Parasteatoda (formerly Achaearanea) frequently take very large caterpillars and Jerusalem crickets. Tidarren capture large scorpions and Latrodectus (black widows) can take enormous locusts and beetles as well as scorpions and almost any other large arthropod. Most of these are not dangerous to humans though their bites may be painful. However, Latrodectus bites can be incredibly painful and, in some cases, victims may require hospitalization and antivenom to relieve pain and prevent death. Species
|
|
Spider Pharm Inc * PO Box 1090 * Yarnell, AZ
85362 |
