Talk:Red-back spider

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Spiders, a collaborative effort to improve and expand Wikipedia's coverage of spiders. If you would like to participate, visit the project page where you can join the project and/or contribute to discussion.
A	This article has been rated as A-class on the quality scale.
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the importance scale.
Article Grading: The article has been rated for quality and/or importance but has no comments yet. If appropriate, please review the article and then leave comments here to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article and what work it will need. Spiders To do: As the project is currently just starting, our more experienced editors are working on the project infrastructure, classifying articles, and listing/assessing red links. You can join the project, or just check out what can be done. Your assistance is welcome! Clean up the article Spiders. (find "storyline", equal level of depth of information) Check out if pages are named correctly, eg.: several family pages seem to have names that only apply to a subset of the family. --Sarefo 02:47, 31 July 2006 (UTC) Move pictures from en:Wikipedia to WikiCommons, eg.: Image:Trifasc.jpg Image:Saint Andrews Cross.jpg Image:Il gardenspider stoop.jpg Image:Aeth1a.jpg Image:Newspider.jpg Image:Picta2a.jpg Image:Keys1.jpg Image:Wolf spider 3411.JPG Translate pages from other WPs into English Expand the following articles (and many, many more): Arachnology Determine spider pictures find example species for every spider family check the Spider gallery, upload pictures to the commons if necessary. much, much more, check the Project page If you complete one of these tasks, please remove it from the list and add your achievement to the project log.

Portal	Red-back spider is maintained by WikiProject Australia, which aims to improve Wikipedia's coverage of Australia and Australia-related topics. If you would like to participate, visit the project page.
B	This article has been rated as B-class on the quality scale.
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the importance scale.
Assessment comments This article has been rated for quality and/or importance but has no comments yet. If appropriate, please review the article and then leave comments here to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article and what work it will need.

	Red-back spider is part of WikiProject Pharmacology, a project to improve all Pharmacology-related articles. If you would like to help improve this and other pharmacology articles, please join the project. All interested editors are welcome.

The article originally claimed red-backs are native to Western Australia, but the (new)Queensland Museum link says they were first seen in Queensland, and in ports, so may be introduced. I've put origins 'uncertain' until this can be sorted out. --Townmouse 01:00, 4 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I'm the one who originally put in the West Austalian origin based on a few sources I read. I'm happy to leave the origin as uncertain until we get better information. I wonder if any genetic studies have been done on the Red Back. --RobertBrockway 17:00, 5 Oct 2004 (EST)

Contents 1 Photos of Redback Spiders 2 Clarification needed 3 Not the most dangerous? 4 Dubious benefit 5 Found in US? 6 Removed pic 7 That's real bad! 8 FA Class Article

[edit] Photos of Redback Spiders

The spiders in the article are black widows, not redbacks. See http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&e=24&u=/nm/20050211/od_nm/australia_spiders_dc for pictures of actual redback spiders.

MSTCrow 06:13, Feb 12, 2005 (UTC)

I've updated the photo with a picture of an actual Redback spider taken outside my house yesterday.

Orichalcon 02:43, May 30, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Clarification needed

The article states: Contrary to common belief, bites from male red-back spiders are not dangerous, as reported by the Queensland Museum.

This needs to be reworded by someone more intimate with the subject than I am.

Either of these would clarify:

* The Queensland Museum reports that, contrary to common belief, bites from male red-back spiders are not dangerous. 
* Contrary to common belief, and reports from the Queensland Museum, bites from male red-back spiders are not dangerous.

However I'd go further and suggest that the Queensland Museum might not be needed there at all. Just make it a reference link if they have useful information on their own website. 218.214.148.59 00:25, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Not the most dangerous?

"In reality it is far less dangerous to the general population than a number of other dangerous spider species native to Australia." - Is this really true? What other Australian spiders have killed people? The article should name these more dangerous spiders, or the sentence should be removed, IMHO. Rocksong 00:53, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

Sydney Funnel-web? CSIRO Web Site - [1] according to the article: Bites from the Sydney funnel-web spider have resulted in deaths AdamJudd 07:58, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

Yes, but I think that's the only one. The quoted sentence was edited a while ago and now mentions the Funnel-web. So my complaint (written back in March) is no longer relevant. Rocksong 22:47, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Dubious benefit

I removed the statement "This strategy [i.e. eating him] seems to benefit the male because the female will not mate again." Clearly, being eaten cannot benefit any creature.--Shantavira 14:06, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

If it ensures that the female will not mate again (disclaimer: I've no idea whether it does), then it benefits him in the sense that the progeny are guaranteed to be his, not someone else's. Rocksong 03:25, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

It can benefit the species because the process guarantees that the female is nourished in order to produce progeny. Perhaps the person who wrote "benefit the male" had misunderstood the meaning of some source material. --Amandajm 05:51, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Found in US?

While shopping with my cousin in Arizona, I saw a spider that appeared to resemble the one featured on this page. The article seems to say that these spiders reside exclusively in Australia... is that correct? Does anyone know of any US-native spider that resembles this one? 68.98.127.155 22:20, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

That would most likely be a Black Widow Spider. Orichalcon 11:31, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Removed pic

The picture was not a male red-back.

Female red-backs are not always marked. The male is tiny and pale coloured, with white markings and could easily be mistaken for something else, unless you are familiar with the species. --Amandajm 05:46, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

Would you mind helping me identify what type of spider it actually was? The picture was fairly good, so I'd like to put it on the correct article. For anyone who missed it, it's here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Redbackmale.JPG Orichalcon 19:42, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] That's real bad!

I just looked at those two photos of that spider sitting on a piece of computer paper. That spider is drunk!! You can tell it's drunk... it's legs are all splayed out every which way! That's not natural! Red-backs usually sit there with their legs drawn up ready to pounce and look at you with a very alert expression in all of their mean little eyes. But not that one! Someone has slipped that red-back a Mickey Finn. They ought to be reported!

--Amandajm 12:02, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] FA Class Article

What'll it take to bump this article and other spider articles up to FA-Class? Does it just need more references, or is there more to it than that? Orichalcon 06:17, 2 February 2007 (UTC)