Snake-back spider
The snake-back spider has a grey body with a row of black spots down its back. People think the pattern looks like the skin of some snakes, and that is how it got its name. It hides in a little silk tube inside a crack.
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Fun facts
Silk threads spread out from the door of its tube like a fan. When an insect touches one, the spider rushes out and grabs it.
On some spiders the black spots join together into one long dark stripe.
Its legs are pale brown with darker rings, like little striped socks.
In Great Britain there is a spider wasp that hunts only this spider.
Most asked questions about Snake-back spider
?Why is it called the snake-back spider?
Because the row of black spots on its back looks a bit like the pattern on some snakes.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Segestria senoculata
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Segestriidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Segestriidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Segestria senoculata (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Magnefl. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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