Katipo spider - Latrodectus katipo - a photo on Flickriver

            The katipo is an endangered species of spider native to New Zealand. It is one of many species in the genus Latrodectus, such as the Australian redback (L. hasseltii), and the North American black widows. The species is venomous to humans, capable of delivering a comparatively dangerous bite. The name katipo is from the Māori katipō, meaning "night-stinger". 
It is a small to medium-sized spider, with the female having a round black or brown pea-sized body. Red katipo females, found in the South Island and the lower half of the North Island, are always black, and their abdomen has a distinctive red stripe bordered in white. In black katipo females, found in the upper half of the North Island, this stripe is absent, pale, yellow, or replaced with cream-coloured blotches. These two forms were previously thought to be separate species. The male is much smaller than the female and quite different in appearance: white with black stripes and red diamond-shaped markings. 
Katipo are mainly found living in sand dunes close to the seashore. They are found throughout most of coastal New Zealand except the far south and west. 
Katipo feed mainly on ground dwelling insects, caught in an irregular tangled web spun amongst dune plants or other debris,
After mating in August or September, the female katipo produces five or six egg sacs in November or December. The spiderlings hatch during January and February and disperse into surrounding plants. Due to habitat loss and colonisation of their natural habitat by other exotic spiders, the katipo is threatened with extinction.
A katipo bite produces the toxic syndrome latrodectism; symptoms include extreme pain and, potentially, hypertension, seizure, or coma. Bites are rare, an antivenom is available, and no deaths have been reported since 1901. 
The katipo is particularly notable in New Zealand as the nation is almost entirely devoid of dangerous native wildlife; this unique status means the spider is well known, despite being rarely seen.
   

Taken on: January 4, 2019

Tags:

Auldwood Photography

Steve Attwood

Latrodectus katipo

katipo spider

spider

arachnid

Kaitorete Spit

Canterbury « less

Sets appears in: • NZ animals (not birds)

Stats: 330 views

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder