Spitting spider

Food tiller ( Scytodes thoracic )

• Dictis
• Scyloxes
• Scytodes
• Soeuria
• Stedocys

Food crabs ( Scytodidae ), also Leimschleuderspinnen, hunt their prey through out the jaw claws ( chelicerae ) being flung glue threads. They are not to be confused with the sometimes also " crab meat " mentioned family Sicariidae.

The only native species in Central Europe this family, the three to six millimeters wide Scytodes thoracic inhabited building in Central Europe, without exception.

Description

Members of the crab meat are the only spiders that overwhelm their prey from a distance. Their prey localize with cup hairs ( trichobothria ) on the front pair of legs. They spit venom glands from converted by enlarged Chelicerenöffnungen a mixture of poison and glue up to 20 millimeters wide on their prey. The converted venom glands have a pantry in the front body of the spider, which is emptied by muscle contraction. The prey is stuck in 140 ms by the both horizontally and vertically, about 20 times in a zig- zag shape and exactly gespuckten glue on the ground and stunned by the poison to be eaten. Sometimes the chelicerae oscillate horizontally or vertically only. Why this is so is unclear. Glue and poison take effect immediately. The prey is selected according to size and speed of movements.

The spinnerets are still available. The males present copulation forth a thread, which is then held by the third pair of legs and slipped over the genital opening to receive the sperm. The sperm is then picked up by thickening of the pedipalps (pine key) in the bulbs. The bulbs finally be introduced into the genital opening (without Epigyne ) of the female. The female spins a Eisack, she holds with the chelicerae and under the sternum - carries around with them - on the chest.

Genera and species

In the family are currently 158 species in 5 genera known:

• Dictis striatipes L. Koch, 1872, China to Australia
• Scyloxes asiatica Dunin, 1992, Tajikistan
• Scytodes Latreille, 1804, the remaining 153 species
• Soeuria soeur Saaristo, 1997, Seychelles
• Stedocys leopoldi Giltay, 1935, Malaysia
• Stedocys uenorum Ono, 1995, Thailand

Fossil evidence

Fossil crab meat are extremely rare. From eozänem Baltic amber and mostly somewhat younger Dominican amber some specimens were recovered, belonging to all the genus Scytodes.