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Project Noah Nature School
Celaenia excavata
A bird dropping imitator but quite large so maybe an eagle dropping mimic. This fat-bodied momma was clutching onto what seemed to be a sac of eggs. She wouldn't let go no matter what caressings I attempted with a twig. I estimated her abdomen size to be 16mm - about the same size as the sac she was clinging to. As a pair they resembled some large nuts or seed pods but the species of shrub didn't produce anything similar. That's how I noticed her.
On a medium sized shrub in a local nature reserve within inner suburbia.
Often called 'bird dropping spider' although there are other species also named that..Thanks Stephen Thorpe for ID. "At night this spider seems to release odours that mimic those of a female moth ready to mate, thus attracting male moths. The spider's appearance also mimics that of the female moth. The egg sacs, more often noticed than the spiders, are spherical and almost as large as the spider, laid in cluster of 6 to 8 and each containing about 200 eggs." - http://www.arachne.org.au/01_cms/details...
Thanks gents. We're stuck in inner suburbia for a couple of weeks and I can't believe how little 'real' life there is. Missing our forests badly. :(
Spotted on Oct 29, 2013
Submitted on Oct 31, 2013
