One Proud Spider!
Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 1:53 AM
Hi guys,
Had my first encounter with one of these yesterday, is that a gun in its pocket or is it just pleased to see me. This family all have concave undersides to their bodies to allow them to wrap around small branches for camouflage. Of a night they build large webs vertically between trees. Common name here is “wrap around spiders”, this one is Dolophones turrigera.
aussietrev
Queensland, Australia
Hi Trevor,
This is one of the craziest looking spiders ever. We are always charmed and amused with your wonderful submissions from down under. We hope we can locate a link to Dolophonse turrigera to accompany this posting.
Update: April 22, 2016
According to Arachne.org, this is an Orb-weaver and the family does not contain any species that are dangerous to humans.
My god! I live in upstate new york and I just saw a VERY simialar spider yesterday on the porch. I took pictures of it, It looks like a Dolophones Conifera. But I didn’t think they lived outside Australia! What the heck?
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii279/rudolphna/DSC03488.jpg
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii279/rudolphna/DSC03494.jpg
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii279/rudolphna/DSC03494.jpg
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii279/rudolphna/DSC03502.jpg
is It poisonous??
Almost all spiders have venom, but very few species are dangerous to humans. We learned on Arachne.Org that this species is an Orbweaver, and the family does not contain any dangerous species.
thats not answering the question is poisonous or not
Most Spiders, including Orbweavers, have venom. No orbweavers are considered dangerous to humans. Should a bite occur, which is rare, there may be localized swelling and irritation, but no lasting damage.
Is that a good enogh answer @kookie?!
Are these spiders found in North America?
To the best of our knowledge, they are not found in North America.