Southern house spider

Taxobox
name = Southern house spider


image_width = 240px
image_caption = male
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Arachnida
ordo = Araneae
subordo = Araneomorphae
familia = Filistatidae
genus = "Kukulcania"
species = "K. hibernalis"
binomial = "Kukulcania hibernalis"
binomial_authority = Hentz, 1842

The Southern house spider is a member of the genus "Kukulcania" (formerly of genus "Filistata") and are large North American spiders which exhibit strong sexual dimorphism. The males very closely resemble brown recluses, having similar coloration and body structure, though they have slender bodies and are uniformly brown, unlike the brown recluse. The females are dark brown or black and more compact. Both sexes may grow to be roughly two inches across (legs extended), with the males typically having longer legs, and the females often having larger, bulbous bodies. The abdomen of the southern house spider is covered with fine velvety light gray hair.

Female southern house spiders are rarely seen, as they build radial webs around crevices, for which reason their family ("Filistatidae") is called crevice weavers. Females seldom move except to capture prey caught in their webs. Males, on the other hand, typically wander in search of insects and females to mate with, having no particular territory.

The southern house spider is a cribellate spider. That is, its spinnerets do not produce adhesive webbing. Instead, to capture prey the spider uses its legs to comb webbing across its cribellum, a spiked plate near the spinnerets. This combing action frays and tangles the strands, producing a fine, velcro-like netting that ensnares insect legs.

Male southern house spiders may sometimes appear to be aggressive, but they do not bite unless trapped, and their mouthparts are too small to easily penetrate human skin. They do, however, have an unnerving tendency to crawl across anything in their path regardless of whether it is alive. This is not aggression; these spiders are simply nearly blind and cannot see larger animals. Indeed, these spiders instinctively play dead if they feel threatened (a tactic which is effective against their common predators).

Reproduction

The southern house spider mating ritual is a lengthy (over an hour) and elaborate process with long periods during which neither the male nor the female moves considerably. When the wandering male encounters a female's web, there may be an initial confrontation where each scares the other. Upon recovering, the male then constructs a large web around the female's crevice. When this web is complete, the male pulls on its strands continuously to draw the female out of her hole, which may take several minutes. Following her emergence, each spider will tap at the other in an effort to grasp the other by the forelegs, with the male remaining suspended in his web.

External links

* [http://www.floridanature.org/species.asp?species=Kukulcania_hibernalis South house spider pictures and info]
* [http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/subimages.cfm?SUB=10524 Picture of "K. hibernalis"] (free for noncommercial use)
* [http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/urban/spiders/southern_house_spider.htm southern house spider] on the UF / IFAS Featured Creatures Web site