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Family: Scytodidae
Genus: Scytodes
Scytodes fusca
Classification: Family Scytodidae, Spitting Spiders.
Habitat: Dry, dusty and sheltered corners of wooden houses,
especially under the floor of stilted huts.
Female: 5-7 mm.
Male: 5-6 mm.
Distribution: Singapore (new record), Indonesia, Myanmar, Papua New
Guinea, northern Australia, southern Japan.
Eggs are carried around by the mother under the palps.
Like the Sicariidae
and Diguetidae these spiders are haplogyne (lack hardened female
genitalia) and
The spider lives in a loose tangle of silk with a funnel retreat
inside crevices. Whereas most spiders have eight eyes, Spitting
Spiders have only six.
The family comprise nocturnal and slow-moving spiders that
immobilise their prey by spraying two jets of glue-venom mixture
through their fangs. The glue is produced by large glands inside the
cephalothorax, which has a characteristic plump shape.
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