Spitting Spider Identification Australia: Scytodes Guide

About the Spitting spider

Spitting spider is the common name for Scytodes species, a distinctive group of small hunters that pin tiny prey with an adhesive zigzag before approaching to bite and wrap it. For identification, the useful combination is a high rounded front body, only six eyes arranged as three pairs, fine legs and no prey-catching web. Yellow-brown mottling and an indoor encounter can support that match, but neither proves it. This is a genus-level guide: Australian species vary, and a normal phone photograph often cannot show the eye arrangement or characters required for a species name.

How to identify a spitting spider

Start with the side profile. In Scytodes, the carapace—the front body section carrying the eyes and legs—is conspicuously high and rounded rather than low and flat. It can look larger and more domed than the abdomen because specialised cephalothoracic glands occupy much of that region. Then check the eyes: Scytodidae has six eyes arranged in three pairs, not the eight-eye arrangement found in most familiar Australian house and hunting spiders. This is a macro character; reflections, markings and two hidden eyes can produce a false count in a distant image. The legs are slender and the body is small, often cream, yellowish or brown with darker spots, lines or mottling. Combine the dome, verified eye pattern, build and absence of a capture web. A high-backed patterned spider in a room is a useful lead, not a species-level identification.

Clues that are not enough on their own

• Cream, yellow or brown spotting by itself, because many unrelated small spiders are mottled
• Long thin legs alone, which can suggest cellar spiders, male house spiders and other hunters
• Being found indoors or in a shed, a setting shared by many Australian spider groups
• Slow movement or the absence of a visible web without a clear view of the domed carapace and six-eye arrangement

Colour, sex and life-stage variation

Scytodes is a genus rather than one Australian colour form. Species, sex, age, recent feeding and lighting can change body fullness and apparent pattern. Some individuals are pale cream with distinct dark markings; others are warmer brown, more evenly coloured or faintly patterned. Adult males may look leggier and have enlarged pedipalps, while juveniles are especially difficult to resolve. The hero photograph shows an exact-genus Scytodes thoracica specimen photographed outside Australia. It demonstrates the domed carapace, fine legs and mottling, but its markings must not be used as a universal template for every Australian Scytodes. Keep an ordinary record at genus level unless locality and fine diagnostic characters have been checked by an expert.

Behaviour, web and retreat

Spitting is a specialised prey-capture action, not evidence that the spider sprays people across a room. At close range a Scytodes faces small prey and rapidly ejects adhesive, silk-bearing material from the fang region in paired zigzag bands. The contracting sticky lines pin the prey to the surface. The spider can repeat the action if the prey continues to struggle, then approaches, bites, wraps the prey with ordinary abdominal silk and feeds. Peer-reviewed work on S. thoracica shows that alternating fang movements help form the zigzag pattern. Scytodes may also stalk, pause and tap with the front legs before attacking. Some species eat other spiders, but behaviour varies and the Australian Museum account should not be turned into a claim that every individual is social or hunts the same prey.

Australian distribution

The current Australian Faunal Directory genus account records Scytodes for New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia, with worldwide extra distribution information. Those state records support the filters on this page, but they are not a promise that the genus occurs throughout every part of each state, and the directory cautions that maps may not show the entire distribution. A report from another state should therefore be documented rather than forced into or rejected from the genus on location alone. Record the exact suburb or region, habitat, date and clear photographs; introduced or transported spiders and future taxonomic updates can complicate broad range assumptions.

What to do if you find one

Leave the spider in place when practical. It is a small predator of other arthropods and does not need its unusual feeding behaviour tested. Photograph the whole setting first, then the dorsal surface, high side profile and eye area without touching it. If it is indoors and relocation is wanted, place a clear container over it, slide stiff card underneath and release it into nearby sheltered habitat; avoid bare-hand capture. A few silk strands may belong to a resting, moulting, egg or maternal retreat rather than a prey-catching web, so photograph them before cleaning. For any suspected bite, follow current Australian health advice and respond to symptoms rather than relying on an uncertain photo identification.

Compare with similar spiders

Use body shape, web or retreat, location and behaviour together before settling on a likely match.

• Daddy-long-legs spider — Daddy-long-legs spider - has extremely long legs, a much smaller elongated body and normally hangs in a loose tangled web. A Scytodes is more compact and domed, with six eyes in three pairs.
• Brown house spider / cupboard spider — Brown house spider / cupboard spider - usually has a rounded abdomen and lives in a messy sticky tangle web. It lacks the unusually high Scytodes carapace; web architecture is a stronger clue than shared brown colour.
• Wall spider / baseboard spider — Wall spider / baseboard spider - can be small and found on indoor surfaces, but is flatter and generally moves rapidly. It does not show the high rounded front body and characteristic paired six-eye arrangement of Scytodes.
• Triangular spider — Triangular spider - may be small and patterned, but has an angular abdomen and crab-like ambush posture on foliage. It lacks the high domed carapace and short-range spitting anatomy.

Sources for this profile

These accessible authoritative sources support the identification and bite-safety context on this page.

• Australian Faunal Directory: Scytodes
• Australian Museum: Spitting Spiders
• Scientific Reports: Spit and venom from Scytodes spiders
• University of Florida: Spitting spiders
• healthdirect: Spider bites

Profile review

Published by Spider Identifier Australia. Last factual review: 10 August 2026.