Salticid Ant Eater - Zenodorus orbiculatus (Pystira orbiculata)
FAMILY SALTICIDAE
This page contains pictures and information about Salticid Ant Eaters that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Female, body length 6mm
- They are easily found on gum and wattle tree trunks. They are always facing downwards, waiting for prey passing by. Mostly ants, but the spiders will attack most kind of insects as well.
- Male Male Male
- We believed the spiders in the above photos were male for their smaller abdomen. As other spiders, males are seldom seen. The above three photos show the males. The rest in this page are females.
- The spiders spend most of the time waiting on tree trunk. With some observations, we found that they prey on different species of ants. They wait and target for the ants where those ants are also walking up and down on the tree trunk.
- The spider shiny black to dark brown in colour, with a white line circle the edge of its abdomen. Some with a white dot at the centre. Their legs are pale brown when young, becomes dark brown and black when growing up..
- This Jumping Spiders are ant-hunters which specifically targeting on ants.
- They usually found hunting on smooth bark gum tree trunk. Sometimes they also find on leaves. The spiders in the above pictures both captured a Meat Ant on leaves. Meat Ants are usually hunting on leaves.
- This young Salticid Ant Eater was hunting on stems, feeding on small brown ants.
- Young Ant-Eater, body length 3mm, winter in Karawatha Forest
- Just got a winged ant.
- This young Ant-eater is feeding a Golden Black Ant about its size. When the spider was feeding, we usually found a few very small fly near by. We believed they are the scavenger waiting for the remains.
- Check those different ant species that they captured.
- Reference:
- 1. Spiders - genus Zenodorus - lifeunseen.com, by Nick Monaghan, 2007.
- 2. Jumping spider Zenodorus orbiculatus - The Find-a-spider Guide for Australian Spiders, University of Southern Queensland, 2007.
- 3. Zenodorus orbiculatus (Salticid Ant Eater) - by Robert Whyte, Save Our Waterways Now.
- 4. A Guide to Australian Spiders - Densey Clyne, Melbourne, Nelson 1969, p106 (Pystira orbiculata).
- 5. Salticidae Jumping Spiders - Spiders of Australia, Ed Nieuwenhuys, 2009.
- 6. Zenodorus orbiculatus (Keyserling, 1881) - Salticidae: Diagnostic Drawings Library, by Jerzy Proszynski, 1999
