Hobbies And Interests
White Tailed Spider Appearance
The bodies of white tailed spiders are dark red to gray. They have a long, cigar-shaped body that features two pairs of white spots on the abdomen with a white spot at the tip. These spots can fade as the spiders become mature. White tailed spiders also have dark orange-brown banded legs. The females are plumper and longer than the males.
Hunting Behavior
Unlike other spiders that build nests to hunt insects, the white tailed spider hunts other spiders. It does so by entering a spider's web and imitating the movements of a trapped insect. This lures the other spider out, at which point the white tailed spider strikes its victim. The venom the spider uses can cause pain, swelling and itching in humans, which is why it is important to identify the white tailed spider by its markings.
Coloration in Adults
The white spots on white tailed spiders appear to fade as the spiders matures. For some spiders, color changes might be because of the fact that spiders molt five to seven times in their life cycle. During this process, the spider grows a new exoskeleton under the current one. When the new exoskeleton is ready, the spider hangs upside down, the abdomen contracts and the blood pressure rises, allowing a spider to crack its old exoskeleton and slip out of it.
Causes for Coloration
The different colors you will see on a spider's body are determined by genes and how those genes determine the shape, size and chemicals of a spider's composition. White coloration in white tailed and other spiders comes from the presence of guanine crystals in the peripheral gut cells. The way light is diffracted in the body cuticle, which is made up of different stacking layers, can produce different color patterns. Small hairs can also create different color patterns.