FAMILY HERSILIIDAE - Two-tailed Spiders
Spiders in this family are small spider and easily identified. They have two tails, actually they are the long spinnerets. Two-tailed Spider sits on tree trunk and lay silk on the near by area. When a small insect come close, the insect triggers those silk and the spider senses this. The spider will quickly run around the insect in circles, with the insect in center. The spider will also lay more silk at the same time, until the insect entangled by the silk, becomes the meal of the spider.
- Common Two-tailed Spider
- Tamopsis brisbanensis, leg to leg 30mm
- On Mar 2008 in Karawatha Forest, we found this Two-tailed Spider on a Acacia tree trunk. Two-tailed Spiders are common but hard to find. They are small and heavily camouflaged. Please check this page for more information.
- Gumtree Two-tailed Spider
- ? Tamopsis sp., leg to leg 30mm
- We found this Gumtree Two-tailed Spider once in Carbrook Wetland on Oct 2011. It was sitting on a large Scribble Bark Gumtree trunk. The spider camouflages as the same colours and markings as the tree trunk. We have more information in this page.
- Reference:
- 1. A Guide to Australian Spiders - Densey Clyne, Melbourne, Nelson 1969, p42.
- 2. Tamopsis species - The Find-a-spider Guide for Australian Spiders, University of Southern Queensland, 2007.
