''Nicodamus peregrinus'', known as the red and black spider, is a

spider Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and ran ...

found in eastern and southern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. Unlike the

redback spider The redback spider (''Latrodectus hasselti''), also known as the Australian black widow, is a species of highly venomous spider believed to originate in Australia, but which is now found in Southeast Asia and New Zealand. It has also been fo ...

(''Latrodectus hasseltii''), the bright red colouration does not appear to warn of significant danger to humans. Food is a variety of small insects. They have been recorded in

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Victoria and

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

Description and egg sac

Usually found under bark, fallen trees or stones close to the ground. Legs are red and black. The

cephalothorax The cephalothorax, also called prosoma in some groups, is a tagma of various arthropods, comprising the head and the thorax fused together, as distinct from the abdomen behind. (The terms ''prosoma'' and ''opisthosoma'' are equivalent to ''cepha ...

is red, the abdomen is black or sometimes a dark blue.

Palps Pedipalps (commonly shortened to palps or palpi) are the secondary pair of forward appendages among chelicerates – a group of arthropods including spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders. The pedipalps are lateral to the chelicera ...

are red and black. Body length of males is 8 to 10 mm, females 12 to 14 mm. The egg sac is 10 to 20 mm in diameter and contains from 30 to 50 cream eggs, 1 mm in diameter. The sac is plano-convex in shape, consisting of white fluffy silk, placed in a sheltered area such as under bark. Near continual courtship and mating have been observed when in captivity, resulting in the exhaustive death of the males. These spiders tend to wave their forelegs in the air while walking, and the males tap the ground with their

palps Pedipalps (commonly shortened to palps or palpi) are the secondary pair of forward appendages among chelicerates – a group of arthropods including spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders. The pedipalps are lateral to the chelicera ...

Naming & taxonomy

This spider belongs to the family

Nicodamidae Nicodamidae is a family of Araneomorphae, araneomorph spiders with twenty-seven species in seven genera. They are small to medium-sized spiders found near the ground of eucalypt forest in small sheet webs. The species of this family are only prese ...

. However, it has also been placed in the families

Theridiidae Theridiidae, also known as the tangle-web spiders, cobweb spiders and comb-footed spiders, is a large family of Araneomorphae, araneomorph spiders first described by Carl Jakob Sundevall in 1833. This diverse, globally distributed family includes ...

Agelenidae The Agelenidae are a large family of spiders in the suborder Araneomorphae. Well-known examples include the common "grass spiders" of the genus ''Agelenopsis''. Nearly all Agelenidae are harmless to humans, but the bite of the hobo spider (''Era ...

and

Zodariidae Ant spiders are members of the family Zodariidae. They are small to medium-sized eight-eyed spiders found in all tropical and subtropical regions of South America, Africa, Madagascar, Australia-New Guinea, New Zealand, Arabia, and the Indian su ...

. It was originally named by the French arachnologist Charles Walckenaer as ''Theridion peregrinum'' in 1841. However, there have been several name changes and synonymisations. The most recent being in 1995, after a revision of the family

, when the name ''Centropelma bicolor''was synonymised with ''Nicodamus peregrinus''. Walckenaer's original specific epithet ''peregrinum'' refers to the wandering nature of the spider.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5516593 Nicodamidae Spiders of Australia Spiders described in 1841