One for Exfso

[Rob_K]

Shots of a male Eastern Mouse Spider (Whitebacked Mouse Spider), Missulena bradleyi, that I found on the back doormat last night. Second one in two weeks in the same spot, but they move around looking for mates at this time of year. It was very aggressive as I shoved it into a jar (as I would be if the situation was reversed, eek). Must stop wearing thongs out in the dark...

Bites are potentially very serious as they have similar toxins to the Funnelweb Spider. However it seems that most recorded bites have been 'dry', ie no venom injected. Funnelweb antivenene works on bites from this spider apparently.

Shots taken with a Canon IXUS 220 HS.

Cheers -

[Regulus (Trevor)]

Nice shot but, urgh!
Don't know why thongs are so popular in Oz.

[Astroman (Andrew Wall)]

Wow Rob, thats one nice looking Spider, look at those fangs, beautiful.

[Rob_K]

Thanks Trevor & Andrew. There are some interesting things crawling around at night that we rarely see. This one is quite common but I haven't seen many. I've had funnelwebs around the place before (Atrax sp) but they're much smaller than the Sydney Funnelwebs (thank gawd!).

Cheers -

[MortonH]

Nice shots. Thanks for the nightmares!

[graham.hobart (Graham stevens)]

Man, if I had one of those on my doormat I would pass out I think!

[Ric]

This is the reason I never walk around the farm without boots, preferably steel caps.