Wishbone Spider - Nemesiidae - Aname sp. 2

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Wishbone Spider - Nemesiidae - Aname sp. 2

When I met this lady it was during September after a fine rain shower on a calm mild night that left everything fresh and moist, plus it was topped off by a multitude of singing crickets. Sighting a mature female burrowing spider away from her burrow was most unusual, but this one had and was sufficiently far away that I could not find it. She was obviously out hunting after winter and probably drawn by the cricket activity.

The aftermath of the fine rain shower was also important, as primitive spiders breathe from book-lungs, where the book pages are replaced with air absorbing tissues, which are only effective when humidity is high. So when conditions are hot and dry and humidity low, these burrowing spiders do not venture out, but remain in their holes where humidity levels are higher. Modern spiders also have book-lungs, but have a more adaptable tracheal (tubular) breathing system too, thus enabling them to tolerate much drier conditions.

This red legged female Aname species is the only one I have seen, with all others having black or very dark brown legs. Without microscopical inspection there is no way of telling if it is an undescribed species, or just a color form of a better known one. So until this red legged individual is described or allocated, I shall continue to call it Aname Species 2.

From previous experience of this group of spiders, they can be very aggressive, rearing up with little provocation, and although not regarded as life threatening, they can inflict a nasty bite and leave you feeling very sick, so best to keep your distance.

The head and body length of this animal was between 3-4 cm (around 11/2") and with the legs (that are much shorter than those of the male), she would span around 8 cm (over 3"). The habitat was deep white sand supporting heath dominated by Banksia speciosa.

Aname tepperi – Nemesiidae

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Aname tepperi – Nemesiidae 

The Nemesiidae family currently has over 80 species, with the greatest diversity found in Western Australia, but many remain undescribed throughout their range. They are distributed widely in all Australian States and both islands of New Zealand. They are not aggressive spiders and not regarded as dangerous to humans, usually bunching up to make themselves look as small as possible or will run away. Nevertheless if seriously provoked will rear up to defend themselves and can give a nasty bite, so care should be taken if encountered. 

Aname tepperi (recently known as Chenistonia tepperi) is found in WA and SA. It is reasonably common in deep sandy soils and heathland vegetation around Esperance, but unless you go out at night in search of them, it is doubtful if you will see any, but if you do, it will very likely be the male in search of a lady. The females like most primitive spiders, rarely stray far from their burrows and are seldom seen. 

 The Males have a head/body length of around 2 cm or ¾”, but their long legs can span 7-8 cm or over 3”, however their most notable aspect is the soft silver/gold hair that covers much of the body and legs. There are several individuals shown above and most were out and about after good rain in June, others have occasionally been seen during July and August, but very rarely at other times. 

My thanks to Nicholas Birks, a volunteer at S.A.Museum (Arachnology), who identified these spiders. 

Nemesiidae - Aname species 1 - Wishbone Spider

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Wishbone Spider - Nemesiidae - Aname sp. 1

Although appearing like a Funnel-web Spider it is not, but is often called a False Funnel-web Spider (True Funnel-web Spiders do not occur in WA). It is a common species of the Esperance region and can be found from low-lying areas around ephemeral swamps to the tops of sandy hillocks. This spider has been known as the Black Wishbone Spider, Aname diversicolor (even in recent WA museum literature), however from other reputable sources it is stated A. diversicolor is an Eastern States spider. Whatever the situation, there are over 30 Aname species in Australia and 5 of these are recorded from WA (4 exclusively).

In the photos above, the top four show female spiders, below them is a typical burrow, plus three male spiders, the latter commonly found wandering around at night in search of a mate. The females are solidly built and excluding the legs are around 30-40 mm (11/2") in length, the males are much smaller being about half her size, but with longer legs. They are readily identified as male, by the long palps (either side of the fangs) that appear like an additional pair of legs.

Besides the particularly long palps of the male, many male species have a spur on their front legs (see photos) that are used to prop-up the female's fangs during mating. This can be quite effective and some male spiders mate more than once, but when they reach sexual maturity after about 5 years, they virtually cease to feed and usually fall prey to the female or other predators as they gradually fail in strength. Although the bites of these spiders are not known to be life threatening, they can make you quite sick and with the considerable length of their fangs (see photos) they can inflict deep and nasty bites, followed by bacterial infection. So do not attempt to handle them.

Young females can sometimes be found on the surface during calm, humid spring nights in search of another location to construct a new burrow. This is a very risky activity for her and is probably only embarked upon by competion and or predator activity where she was. The burrows are quite extensive and require considerable energy to construct and unless prey is plentiful, in drier habitats it could mean a summer without food, as they will seal off the burrow's entrance to maintain life-providing humid conditions. From my observations, most do not make it.

These spiders are called Wishbone Spiders because they build a (wishbone) Y shaped burrow with only one open entrance, the other finishing just below the surface. It probably serves several purposes, but mostly I suspect to escape predators, like parasitic wasps and large centipedes.

If any arachnophobes have read so far, I should like to emphasise that unless you go looking for these spiders, then you are most unlikely to encounter them. If you are now thinking twice about visiting Esperance, then you should consider that you probably have similar spiders where you now live, but have never seen them.