Redback spider
The redback spider is a shiny black spider with a round body and a bright red stripe on its back. Under its body it has a red mark shaped like an hourglass. It is a cousin of the black widow and lives in Australia.
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Fun facts
Only the female has the big round body. The male is tiny, only about a third of her size.
It likes warm, sheltered spots, often near or inside houses.
Before wrapping its prey, it can squirt a sticky glue to hold it still.
A mother puts about 250 eggs in each round white egg sac.
Most asked questions about Redback spider
?Why is it called a redback?
Because of the bright red stripe on its back.
?Where do redback spiders live?
In Australia, often in warm sheltered spots near houses. They have also spread to New Zealand and Japan.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Latrodectus hasselti
- Named by
- Thorell, 1870
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Theridiidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Theridiidae
- Lives on
- Australia and Oceania, Asia
- Also known as
- Australian black widow, Red-striped spider, Red-spot spider, Jockey spider
Where the facts come from
- Redback spider (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Toby Hudson. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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