Bug Wiki
Sticker of White-tailed spider
Bug card No. 1467 of 1,500

White-tailed spider

Lampona cylindrata
Name means: “Lampona comes from a Latin word meaning to shine, and cylindrata means shaped like a cylinder”
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsSpidersHouses and farms8 legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The white-tailed spider is a slim, dark grey spider shaped like a little cigar. At the very end of its body it has a white spot, like a tiny white tail. It lives in Australia and New Zealand, in gardens and houses.

Fun fact: spiders are not insects. Insects have six legs, spiders have eight. Everyone calls them bugs anyway!
Lives in
Southern and eastern Australia, and now New Zealand, in gardens and houses
Length
1.2 to 1.8 cm (0.47 to 0.71 in)
females are bigger than males
Top speed
about 1.6 km/h (0.99 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Can bite or sting
What does it eat?
It hunts other spiders at night. Its favourite food is the black house spider.
For real!Photo of White-tailed spider
Picture by Caroline Harding, MPI. CC BY 3.0 au, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

White-tailed spider about 1.8 cm long (0.71 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
as long as 3 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 2.2 secondsmoves 25 times its own body length every second

How big is White-tailed spider compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It does not build a web. It walks around at night looking for spiders to eat.

2

The white spot on its tail stays all its life, even when its other spots fade.

3

The mother lays pinkish eggs in a flat silk bag and guards them until they hatch.

you asked

Most asked questions about White-tailed spider

?What does a white-tailed spider eat?

Other spiders, especially the black house spider.

?How big is a white-tailed spider?

Up to 18 millimetres long, with legs spreading about 28 millimetres.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Lampona cylindrata
Named by
L. Koch, 1866
Group
Spiders
Family
Lamponidae
Classification
Arachnida > Araneae > Lamponidae
Lives on
Australia and Oceania
Also known as
Whitetail

Where the facts come from

  1. White-tailed spider (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Caroline Harding, MPI. CC BY 3.0 au, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.

More from the same group: Spiders

Also at home here: Houses and farms