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Cryptachaea gigantipes, the white porch spider, is a common, long-legged theridiid spider that occurs in south-eastern Australia typically in rocky overhangs and caves, but it also commonly enters houses and other structures where it can be found in windows and corners.Adults have a body size about 6 mm across, and legs significantly longer than those of other closely related species.Females and juveniles build a web that they tend; males are frequent occupants of nests, but are free-roving.In the web, C. gigantipes frequently sits in its web with forelegs raised up above its body. Females make brownish egg sacks, which hold clutches of up to 250 eggs.Females actively protect the spiderlings when they emerge 4-5 weeks after eggs are laid until they disperse about 1-2 months later. The white porch spider will bite humans, but this is very rare, 2 cases of envenoming are recorded, with description of symptoms lasting 24 hours and including pain, swelling and muscle ache.
A potentially invasive species, C. gigantipes has been recorded also on the North Island of New Zealand, and in a car in Wellington, NZ. Molecular analyses suggest that it was accidentally introduced to New Zealand through human activity in about 2000.Cryptachaea gigantipes is closely related to C. veruculata.
(Smith et al. 2012; Taranaki Educational Resource, 2015)
