page_title: White-tailed spider
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: White-tailed spider / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Specimen in the Australian Museum spider display.
context_page_description: White-tailed spiders are spiders native to southern and eastern Australia, and so named because of the whitish tips at the end of their abdomens. The body size is up to 18 mm, with a leg-span of 28 mm. Common species are Lampona cylindrata and Lampona murina. Both these species have been introduced to New Zealand.
  White-tailed spiders are vagrant hunters that seek out and envenom prey rather than spinning a web to capture it; their preferred prey is other spiders.
  They are reported to bite humans, with effects including a red mark, and local itchiness, swelling and pain. On rare occasions, bites can result in nausea, vomiting, malaise or headache. Although ulcers and necrosis have been attributed to the bites, a scientific study by Isbister and Gray showed they had other causes, mostly infections. A study of 130 white-tailed spider bites found no necrotic ulcers or confirmed infections.
context_section_description: The two common species of white-tailed spiders are Lampona cylindrata and Lampona murina. They are similar in appearance; L. cylindrata is slightly larger with females being up to 18 mm long while males are up to 12 mm in body length. The legs span approximately 28 mm. The two species are not easily distinguished without microscopic examination. They are slender spiders with dark reddish to grey, cigar-shaped body and dark orange-brown banded legs. The grey abdomen has two pairs of faint white spots and—usually but not always—a distinct white spot at the tip just above the spinnerets.
  The similarities have led people to think there is only one species of white-tailed spider. It is possible that not all white-tailed species have been identified. The descriptor, white tail, is applied to a variety of species of spiders for which a distal white mark on their abdomen is a distinctive feature; other markings disappear with moultings but the white tail remains to adulthood.
  L. cylindrata lay pinkish eggs which are enclosed in a flattened silk capsule and are guarded by the female until they hatch.
caption: L. cylindrata male specimen on display in the Australian Museum
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