Family SPARASSIDAE
Heteropoda venatoria (Linnaeus)
Synonymy.—Heteropoda regia Fabricius.
Common names.—Banana spider (Comstock, 1912); huntsman spider (Gertsch, 1949); big brown house spider (Bryan, 1915).
Natural and experimental prey.—Cockroaches, Bermuda (Verrill, 1902); Puerto Rico (Sein, 1923; Wolcott, 1924a; Petrunkevitch, 1930a); Hawaii (Bryan, 1915, Williams et al., 1931); British Guiana (Moore in Williams et al., 1931); Panama (Gertsch, 1949); New Zealand (adventive) (Parrott, 1952); England (Cloudsley-Thompson, 1953); Comstock (1912); Hawaii (Pemberton, 1917).
This (pl. [30], A) is a tropical species frequently imported into northern localities with bunches of bananas (Comstock, 1912; Cloudsley-Thompson, 1953). Adults measure 3 to 4 inches across with bodies over an inch long. They seldom leave their resting places during the day, but are active at night and search for food. The female does not spin a web (Bryan, 1915; Gertsch, 1949). The spider turns the cockroach over onto its back at the instant of seizure and holds it firmly against the substrate. The cockroach dies in 10 minutes and is gradually rolled up by the spider as it sucks out the nutriment (Moore in Williams et al., 1931). The spider does not attempt to bite when captured, but if it does, its bite is said to be painful but not dangerous (Cloudsley-Thompson, 1953). Zimmerman (1948) found scores of Periplaneta australasiae breeding in rock piles in Hawaii; also present were large numbers of these spiders and centipedes which presumably preyed upon the cockroaches.
Family THERIDIIDAE
Latrodectus indistinctus Pickard-Cambridge
Common name.—Button spider.
Natural prey.—Karnyia discoidalis, South Africa, Western Cape Province (Hesse, 1942): The nest is constructed on the ground among grass stems or other vegetation. Preferred sites are slight hollows, hoof imprints, etc. Nests are roughly tubular. The remains of insects are entangled in the walls of the nest where they form dense accumulations. Predatory activities of the spider are limited to an area close to the tubular entrance to the nest and do not extend beyond the trapping strands near the entrance. Capture is dependent upon accidental contact of the insect with sticky threads surrounding the entrance. This spider apparently attacks any insect or arachnid that becomes entangled in the nest. In an examination of 40 nests, remains of 6 K. discoidalis were found.