Animal Species:Spotted Ground Spiders The Spotted ground spiders
Habronestes and Storena are two genera of spiders in the family
Zodariidae. Number of species Spotted ground spiders are from 6
mm to 20 mm long. They are usually dark-coloured (reddish to
black), and sparsely haired. Legs are orange to red or black and
white. They have two to five pairs of white or coloured spots on
the dorsal surface of the abdomen that can range from pale
yellow to bright orange. When present, an unpaired spot occurs
just above the spinnerets. A characteristic feature of Storena
is that they have a pale brown, pitted circle of bare cuticle
between the front spots. The eyes are in two back-curved rows of
four. One species of Storena is an ant mimic, resembling the red
meat ants, Iridomyrmex purpureus. They mingle with the ants in
their nest in the early mornings, when the ants are sluggish,
and carry off the weaker ants as prey. Spotted ground spiders
don't build a snare, but hunt and ambush ground dwelling
insects. Like many