Comments on: Sheetweb Spider from New Zealand

By: bugman

bugman — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 17:43:07 +0000

Hi Jaz,
Thank you so much for your insightful comment.

By: jazm1n321

jazm1n321 — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 14:03:22 +0000

Hi there,
I can 100% confirm that this is a Sheet web spider (Cambridgea antipodian) which i had my first experience with at the age of 8 – and also probably the cause of my arachnophobia today . Although they are similar in size, and commonly mistaken for the Hunstman they are quite different in appearance. The Sheet webs’ have noticeably thinner and different shaped bodies and legs to that of the huntsman as well as a more ‘sleek’ appearance as apposed to ‘hairy’. Sheet weebs fangs are also usually very long (mostly in the males) although they are harmless spiders. Hunstman are typically fawn or grey on top with a dark coloured point at the end of their abdomen, while Sheet webs are generally a brown to black colour. Sheet webs are native to New Zealand and especially common in native forest and rural areas although they do show up in cities aswell while Hunstman spiders are native to Australia (but have been found in NZ since the early 1920′s) are not very common in New Zealand and more often than not apparent sighting are simply a case of mistaken identity.
Hope you find this helpful,
Jaz.

By: bugman

bugman — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:31:12 +0000

Thanks for trying to assist with this identification, but we can say for certain that Dysdera crocata, the Sow Bug Killer, is not the spider in question.

By: lttlechkn

lttlechkn — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 10:01:02 +0000

Could possibly be Dysdera crocata. I wouldn’t say it is a huntsman due to the general lack of hair… It could also just be the photos though. http://www.xs4all.nl/~ednieuw/australian/Dysderidae/Dysderidae.html A link for reference, and a common name would be the Woodlouse spider.