Giant house spider. House spider or tegenaria brownie

House spiders (lat. Tegenaria) - a genus of spiders from the family of agelenic funnel spiders. Three common species are the stray house spider (Tegenaria agrestis), the house spider (Tegenaria domestica), and the giant house spider (Tegenaria duellica).
Stray house spider (Tegenaria agrestis) (considered the most poisonous spider; although not scientifically proven), the house spider (Tegenaria domestica) and the giant house spider (Tegenaria duellica).

The house spider, this is its informal name, Tegenaria. Received such a name solely because it lives indoors. Female and male house spiders do not differ much in size, but as a rule, female house spiders can live indoors for several years. The active time of day for these types of spiders is night, at night the males are very active, they move around the house in search of a female to mate with. The body of male house spiders is thin, and the legs are very long. They use their webs to move or weave webs to catch house flies and mosquitoes for food.

Often, a house spider can be confused with a wandering spider (it is also called a biting spider), since they look very similar in appearance. Biting spiders are quite dangerous for people; ulcers appear on the human skin at the site of the bite, which heal very slowly. But, unlike the stray, ordinary house spiders cannot bite through the skin of a person, or their poison is very weak to cause any harm to people.

Agelenidae often aggressive, but almost not dangerous. In their behavior, they are nocturnal, and they often compete with spinners detachment " Spider". Genus Malthonica- perhaps the only one whose representatives hunt as extensively during the day as at night, so they are least likely to be seen on the web. The family itself is quite aggressive towards its own relatives, despite mutual assistance.

Unequal reputation in relation to venomous bite has a genus Tegenaria, namely - Tegenaria agrestis(meadow spider). In Europe, not a single case of serious consequences after the bite of this spider was recorded. However, many American arachnologists have approved the involvement of the meadow spider in serious medical consequences of bitten patients (in most cases, they ended in skin necrosis).

On the general plane, Tegenaria does not have enough toxins in its venom to create a similar effect. Most likely, an infection that penetrated the skin through chelicerae could play a big role in these situations. This is a significant factor, since not all spiders are able to bite through it.

Tegenaria brownie, also known as a house spider or Tegenaria Domestica (from tegens ara - “cover stele”) refers to synanthropic species that prefer to coexist next to a person. It is also said that a swallowed house spider brings good luck.

Description

Tegenaria is a family of funnel spiders that erect housing in the form of a funnel pipe, to which they attach a triangular web up to 3 square meters. dm.

The female is always larger than the male, sometimes one and a half, or even 2 times. The standard male rarely grows more than 9-10 mm, taking into account the span of the paws, while their girlfriends reach up to 15-20 mm.

The color of the body is dominated by brown (slightly lighter or darker), complemented by leopard stains. Sometimes the pattern on the abdomen is more like a herringbone. Males are darker than females, and the darkest, almost black shade falls on the bases of powerful limbs.

Males are slimmer than females, but both are equipped with long legs, where the first / last pair is much longer than the second / third, which allows the spider to move rapidly.

An ignorant person can easily confuse a house spider with a stray (biting) spider that is extremely similar to it, representing a certain danger: its bite provokes the appearance of a slowly healing ulcer.

Tegenaria is not able to bite through the skin, and its poison is not so strong as to seriously harm the human body.

Range, distribution

Tegenaria Domestica lives everywhere, with a small caveat - where people settled.

In the wild, these synanthropic spiders are practically not found. Those rare specimens whom fate has thrown away from human habitation are forced to settle under fallen leaves, fallen trees or under their bark, in hollows or snags. There, house spiders also weave their large and insidious tube-like webs.

This is interesting! The behavior of the house spider determines what the weather will be like. If he sits in the center of the web and does not come out, it will rain. If the spider has left the nest and builds new webs, it will be clear.

Lifestyle

The spider prefers to fix the woven trap in the dark corners of the house.. The nets are almost flat, but their center sharply goes into a corner, to where the hunter himself hid. The web does not have sticky properties: it is loose, which is why insects lose their ability to move and get stuck in it until the executioner arrives.

This usually happens at night when the males go in search of amorous adventures and food. By the way, males, unlike females, do not weave a web, since, like all vagrant spiders, they can hunt without it.

The web with the infested fly begins to shake, the spider runs out of the ambush and bites into the unfortunate with its hook-shaped jaws with poison.

This is interesting! The house spider is not interested in stationary objects, so it sits next to the victim for a long time (throwing a pedipalp or a walking leg on it) waiting for movement. To make the insect move, tegenaria starts kicking the web. As soon as the prey startled, the spider drags it into the lair.

The spider is unable to devour prey - it has a very small mouth and no chewing jaws that grind food. The villain waits for the insect to reach the desired condition under the influence of the injected toxin in order to suck out the contents.

As soon as the spider has begun to eat, other insects crawling by cease to exist for him. The explanation is simple - Tegenaria Domestica does not know how (like many spiders) to wrap food in reserve, putting it aside.

In addition to flies and fruit flies (drosophila), these spiders, like all predatory arachnids, can eat any living food that is suitable in size, such as larvae and mealybugs. It is believed that the house spider is useful, as it destroys harmful insects, including house flies.

The family gets its name from the characteristic shape of the networks it creates. Spiders of medium size or small forms, usually covered with feathery hairs. There are over 500 known species. All studied agelenid species are polyphages feeding on various arthropods. In addition to soft chitinous arthropods such as flies, mosquitoes, small spiders and leafhoppers, the agelenid diet, sometimes in significant numbers, includes such well-protected or potentially dangerous insects as beetles, large orthoptera, ants, and even honey bees. Agelenid webs do not have sticky substances, so they do not delay a fallen insect, but perform a signal function and serve as a convenient substrate on which the spider can move freely, attacking prey. Unlike many other shadowers, they move through the network not upside down, but normally. Thus, the hunting behavior of agelenids is in many respects similar to that of typical wandering spiders. Mating, or rather courtship, in Agelena is quite simple. The male, who discovered the female's network, begins to tap on it, which introduces the female into a trance state, after which he transfers the non-resisting passive female to a suitable place and mates. After that, the couple lives together for several weeks.

house spider Tegenaria domestica

house spider- a widespread cosmopolitan synanthropic species that usually settles in human dwellings. It can be found throughout Russia. These spiders weave a funnel-shaped web consisting of a wide, horizontal shield of dense cobwebs, which ends at the edge into a funnel-shaped tube where the spider itself hides. Male house spiders often “wander” into sinks and bathtubs in search of a female, from which they cannot get out on their own. Adult spiders of this species can be seen in homes throughout the year.

Usually weaves its net somewhere in the corner on the ceiling or behind the closet. Its flat horizontal network, like a triangular-shaped carpet, adjoins the living tube with its narrow end and is a thick loose layer of cobweb. An insect that gets on this carpet literally drowns in it. The spider lives in a cobweb living tube and, feeling the fluctuation of the signal threads, slides along its carpet to the stuck and hobbled prey, attacks it and drags it into its dwelling.

The male house spider grows up to 10 mm (not including the length of the legs). The female is larger, but their color is the same - yellow-gray with brown spots. The house spider is shy and never attacks people. However, he can still bite if he is accidentally crushed. However, its poison is not at all dangerous to humans and does not cause any visible consequences.

Interestingly, house spiders are very sensitive to changes in temperature and humidity, so they can serve as a kind of living barometers. Previously, house spiders were completely trusted in such matters, and you can believe that they were mistaken much less often than today's meteorologists.