Black katipo
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| Black katipo | ||||||||||||||
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| Latrodectus atritus Urquhart, 1890 |
The black katipo, Latrodectus atritus, is a venomous spider native to New Zealand. It is a widow spider like its relatives, the katipo, the Australian redback spider, and the American black widow spiders.
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[edit] Description
The female of L. atritus is similar to that of L. katipo, the red katipo, except for the missing white-bordered red stripe on the back of the abdomen. It is about 1 cm long, up to 4 cm including legs. The males of both species are mostly white, with a series of red-orange diamonds running along its back, bordered by irregular black lines. They are about one sixth the size of a female.[1]
[edit] Distribution
The black katipo is found along the west coast of the North Island down to Oakura, and on the east coast down to Te Kaha[1].
[edit] Name
katipo is a Maori word with the meaning "night-stinger"[2].
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ a b Sutton et al. 2006
- ^ Museum of New Zealand
[edit] References
- Sutton, Marion E.; Christensen, Brendon R. & Hutcheson, John A. (2006): Field identification of katipo PDF
- Platnick, Norman I. (2008): The world spider catalog, version 8.5. American Museum of Natural History.
[edit] External links
