White-tailed Spider

Facts about White-tailed Spiders, "Scientific name for White-tailed Spider Lampona cylindrata". The White-tailed spider is commonly found throughout Australia. The White-tailed Spider are famous for their painful bites. The person bitten by the White-tailed Spider faces excruciating pain, skin lesions and the extreme conditions being ulceration and skin loss. However, the later is a rare case, but people had to undergo skin grafting to recover from the amount of skin they lost from the spider bite.

The white tailed spider has a cylindrical body having grey or brown color. They have a white spot at the tail which justifies their name. In some of the spiders two white spots in their head are also marked. They have glossy legs.

Habitat of White-tailed Spider

The White-tailed Spiders are found in homes, hiding in doors and windows. They build webs faster than any other spider. The White-tailed Spider are very fond of moving and can hide in between closets, stairs, shoes and furniture.

Symptoms of a White-tailed spider bite

The White-tailed Spider can bite anywhere on the human body. Mostly bites in legs and arms are seen as legs and arms are the first thing to come in contact with the clothes while wearing them. In the beginning mild itching is felt which turns into severe burn and pain later on. The pain is usually felt around the spot. The area develops reddish appearance which swells and starts turning into a wound with time.

If proper care isn’t taken, of the biting spot of the White-tailed Spider it might develop into skin ulcer and abscess. The person may also feel nausea and vomiting tendency.

Female spiders are usually bigger than males.
Female White-tailed Spiders lay eggs on a bed of silk, which she creates right after mating. Once the female White-tailed Spider lays her eggs, she will than cover them with more silk.

People that are already undergoing treatment for any kind of infection, having diabetes, recovering from huge wounds usually face hard time standing against White-tailed spider bite. Localized skin loss is common in such situations. This condition is called “Necrotising arachnidism”. A study says that most of such bites happen indoors. Rare cases are recorded to be fatal.

The White-tailed spider population can be controlled by keeping the home clean. Each corner of the house should be checked for spider webs regularly to prevent them from surviving indoor.

A male White-tailed Spider has two appendages called "pedipalps" a sensory organ, instead of a penis, which is filled with sperm and insert by the male into the female White-tailed Spider’s reproductive opening.

White-tailed Spiders have oversize brains.
In the White-tailed Spider the oxygen is bound to "hemocyanin" a copper-based protein that turns their blood blue, a molecule that contains copper rather than iron. Iron-based hemoglobin in red blood cells turns the blood red

White-tailed Spiders have two body parts, the front part of the body is called the Cephalothorax-(the thorax and fused head of spiders). Also on this part of the body is the White-tailed Spider’s gland that makes the poison and the stomach, fangs, mouth, legs, eyes and brain. White-tailed Spiders also have these tiny little leg-type things called (pedipalps) that are next to the fangs. They are used to hold food while the White-tailed Spider bites it. The next part of the White-tailed Spiders body is the abdomen and the abdomens back end is where there is the spinnerets and where the silk producing glands are located.

The muscles in a White-tailed Spiders legs pull them inward, but the spider can't extend its legs outward. It will pump a watery liquid into its legs that pushes them out. A White-tailed Spider’s legs and body are covered with lots of hair and these hairs are water-repellent, which trap a thin layer of air around the body so the spiders body doesn't get wet. It allows them to float, this is how some spiders can survive under water for hours. A White-tailed Spider feels its prey with chemo sensitive hairs on its legs and than feels if the prey is edible. The leg hair picks up smells and vibrations from the air. There are at minimum, two small claws that are at the end of the legs. Each White-tailed Spiders leg has six joints, giving the White-tailed Spider 48 leg joints. The White-tailed Spider’s body has oil on it, so the spider doesn't stick to it’s own web.

A White-tailed Spiders stomach can only take liquids, so a White-tailed Spider needs to liquefy their food before they eat. They bite on their prey and empty its stomach liquids into the pray which turns it into a soup for them to drink.

White-tailed Spiders do not have a skeletons. They have a hard outer shell called an exoskeleton-(a rigid external covering for the body in some invertebrate animals). The exoskeleton is hard, so it can’t grow with the spider. The young White-tailed Spiders need to shed their exoskeleton. The White-tailed Spider has to climb out of the old shell through the cephalothorax. Once out, they must spread themselves out before the new exoskeleton will harden. Know they have some room to grow. They stop growing once they fill this shell.

Spiders belong to a group of animals called "arachnids", mites and Scorpions and a tick is also in the arachnid family. An Arachnids is a creature with eight legs, two body parts, no antennae or wings and are not able to chew on food. Spiders are not insects because insects have three main body parts and six legs and most insects have wings.

The Arachnids are even in a larger group of animals called "arthropods" an invertebrate animal of the large phylum Arthropoda, which also include spiders, crustaceans and insects. They are the largest group in the animal world, about 80% of all animals come from this group. There are over a million different species. There are more than 40,000 different types of spiders in the world.