Redback spider vs Snake ( caught in web)

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Aussie-Pride

Aussie-Pride

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I just found this on a thread on AIF so I thought I'd post it here for the APS crew.

content of orginal email:
Don't mess with a redback
An office receptionist got the shock of her life earlier this week when she found a 70cm long snake entangled in the web of a deadly spider. Tania Robertson, a receptionist at an electrical firm, came in to work on Tuesday and spotted the sight next to a desk in her office. The snake, which had obviously died from the spider's poisonous bite, was off the ground and caught up in the web.
Leon Lotz of the arachnology department at the National Museum said it was only the second time that he had heard of a snake getting caught in a spider's web It is believed the snake got caught in the web on Monday night. But it did not take the spider long to bite it. A red mark on the snake's stomach was evidence of where the spider had started eating it.
Throughout Tuesday, the spider checked on her prey, but on Wednesday she rolled it up and started spinning a web around it. She also kept lifting it higher off the ground, while continually snacking on it.
 

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This is great - at least we get this post out in February for the 2012 edition of the same thread....

Just jossing with ya A-P... But this email has been posted numerous times and most agree it's not a brown and not a red back... :)
 
slim6y said:
This is great - at least we get this post out in February for the 2012 edition of the same thread....

Just jossing with ya A-P... But this email has been posted numerous times and most agree it's not a brown and not a red back... :)
Click to expand...

lol all good mate first time Ive seen it, need to get with the timez.
 
ssssnakeman said:
I think these pics were taken in Africa,
The spider, while it is related to the redback and the black widow is proberly neither.
Click to expand...

Yeah it's definitely not an Australian red back spider (latrodectus hasseltii)the reds on the wrong side of it's abdomen.
 
It's funny that that should suggest this is a rarity - because spiders are very opportunistic.

I've read (though never confirmed) that a huntsman will attack a toad with no problems.

Of course the Selenocosmia sp will also prey on reptiles... But both of these are not web builders....
 
If you do a bit of digging through the 100 other threads about these pics you will find they have been ID'd numerous times
 
spider- snake.jpgspider - gecko.jpg My bad, didn't realize the orignal post was so old first time I had seen it. Anyways here's another 2.
 
Having been a pest control tech for 20 years i have seen myself many times when the humble red back spider has caught through blind luck large animals and has killed them with the venom, I have also lots of pics of the spider catching mice and feeding on the bodies over time, this is nothing out of the ordinary at all and yes the red back dose have a red belly mark although it is a small marking and unless you really look most never see it.
but this spider pictured is far too big for a Australian spider.
 
Last edited:
Spider snacks on snake
11/02/2004 22:23 - (SouthAfrica)​
Bloemfontein - An office receptionist got the shock of her life earlier this week when she found a 14cm long Aurora house snake entangled in the web of a deadly spider.

Tania Robertson, a receptionist at an electrical firm in Bloemfontein, came in to work on Tuesday and spotted the strange sight next to a desk in her office.

The snake, which had obviously died from the spider's poisonous bite, was off the ground and caught up in the web.

Leon Lotz of the arachnology department at the National Museum immediately identified the spider as a female brown button spider.

The brown button spider, easily identifiable by a red hourglass marking on its stomach, is not quite as deadly as a black widow.

He said it was only the second time in South Africa that he had heard of a snake getting caught in a spider's web.
Rod Douglas from the herpetology department identified the snake as being a young, non-poisonous Aurora house snake It is believed the snake got caught in the web on Monday night. But it did not take the spider long to bite it.A red mark on the snake's stomach was evidence of where the spider had started eating it.

Throughout Tuesday, the spider checked on her prey, but on Wednesday she rolled it up and started spinning a web around it. She also kept lifting it higher off the ground, while continually snacking on it. Even a fly that accidentally landed on the snake was chased off aggressively.
 
My other half took these photos at a fish farm she was working at a few years ago. It's a baby keelback. She got called to do a "snake removal" because she was the only one on the farm qualified to do so. This is what she found under a tank. She only had the work camera to grab a few quick pics with, so the quality is not great, but you get the idea.

redback-keelback.JPGredback-keelback3.jpg
 
Is it just me or does the posters pic of the snake have a large gaping wound half way down the snake?
Did not know spiders did this much damage.
 
Yes. In the pics I posted the snake was dead as a doornail before it was discovered.
 
redback_spider_v__skink_5_by_digitaliss-d3gubqa.jpg


redback_spider_v__skink_2_by_digitaliss-d3gubnb.jpg


Not as spectacular as the spider with the snake.
 
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