Spiders of Calamvale Creek, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

A great egret looks for breakfast at Calamvale Creek

Scientific stuff

Spiders

Spiders are eight-legged arachnids belonging to the order Araneida, or Araneae.

A spider's body consists of two basic sections connected by a thin tube. The front section is called the cephalothorax or prosoma, and the back section is the abdomen or opisthosoma.

All spider types lay eggs and cover them with spider silk. Spiders that lose a leg do not seem to be too inconvenienced. There is no bleeding, and after one or two moults, a new leg starts growing from the stump, although it never reaches the length of the original.

Only a small number of Australia's 1500 species of spiders are dangerous to humans.

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Spiders at Calamvale Creek

Spiders are everywhere around the creek, especially in warm weather.

If you take a walk around the creek in summer you may walk into several webs along the way. That's because the creek is rich in small insects that spiders love to eat, and they obviously like a good meal.

Most spiders won't hurt you if you walk into their web. They just consider it an inconvenience and will drop to the ground or scoot off to a branch to get away from you. They come back later to rebuild the web.

Critters of Calamvale Creek