Tube-Web Spider Identification Australia: Ariadna Guide

About the Tube-dwelling spider

Tube-dwelling spiders on this page are the araneomorph tube-web spiders of the family Segestriidae, especially Australian Ariadna—not every Australian spider that happens to live in a tube. A useful field identification combines a narrow circular silk-lined retreat, radiating signal threads, a long-bodied spider with six eyes, and an unusual resting stance in which the first three leg pairs point forward while only the fourth pair points back. The web is usually easier to document than the spider. Do not probe a silk tube: funnel-web, trapdoor and other unrelated spiders also occupy holes or retreats, and species-level Ariadna identification often needs microscopic characters.

How to identify an Australian tube-web spider

Begin with the architecture. The Australian Ariadna revision describes a circular opening, commonly around 5–10 mm in diameter, leading into a silk tube often about 5 cm long. Silk spurs or signal lines radiate over bark, rock or ground; they transmit vibration but do not form an orb, sheet or sticky house-web tangle. If the spider is visible, check its stance: Segestriidae directs leg III forward with legs I and II, so six legs face the entrance and only the fourth pair remains behind. The body is elongated, and the family has six eyes rather than the eight found in most familiar spiders. Eye count requires a sharp macro view because glare and hidden eyes can mislead. Web shape, eye pattern and stance together support a family identification; colour or a silk-lined hole alone cannot.

Clues that are not enough on their own

• Any spider living in a tube, because Australian funnel-web, trapdoor, idiopid tube and house spiders also use silk-lined retreats
• Dark brown, red-brown or black colour without the six-eye pattern and characteristic leg stance
• Radiating silk lines by themselves, which also occur around medically important funnel-web burrows
• Calling an aerial Misgolas burrow a segestriid tube-web because both are sometimes labelled “tube spider” online

Colour, sex and life-stage variation

The 2022 peer-reviewed revision recorded two Australian genera, Ariadna and Gippsicola, and at that time listed 24 described Ariadna and three Gippsicola species. It described 23 new Ariadna from South Australia and Victoria alone, showing why a casual photograph should normally stop at family or genus. Species differ in size, colour, abdominal pattern, leg spines, carapace shape and genital structures. Males may wander away from tubes and have enlarged pedipalps; females and juveniles are more often encountered at retreats. The hero is the licensed diagnostic plate for the 6.0 mm male holotype of Ariadna tria from French Island, Victoria. It is exact-species Australian evidence, but a preserved specimen is not a universal living colour template.

Behaviour, web and retreat

A tube-web spider waits inside its retreat with the first three leg pairs near the entrance and on the signal lines. When a small arthropod crosses a line, the spider can rush forward, seize it and pull it into the tube. The fourth leg pair helps maintain position and reverse into the retreat. This rapid ambush is feeding behaviour, not aggression toward people. The retreat, leg stance and radiating lines work together as a compact trap without a broad prey-catching web. Do not pluck the lines or offer prey because that changes the behaviour and can damage the web. Wandering mature males may be found without a tube and are harder to identify from a normal photograph.

Australian distribution

The current Australian Faunal Directory explicitly lists Ariadna in Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia. Records are uneven and species ranges can be narrow. The 2022 South Australian and Victorian revision found exceptional diversity, particularly in arid northern South Australia, while separate work has revised Tasmania and described a Western Australian species. The state filters therefore describe the documented genus route, not an Australia-wide range for every species. A record from another jurisdiction should be photographed and submitted for expert review rather than accepted or rejected from colour alone.

What to do if you find one

Leave an occupied tube and its signal lines intact. Photograph the whole trunk, rock face or ground setting first, then the circular entrance and radiating lines. A night photograph may show the forward legs at the rim, but keep hands and the camera back. Do not peel bark, lift a fixed rock, flood the tube or insert an object. If a wandering spider is indoors, use a clear container and stiff card rather than bare hands. If it is robust, glossy or plausibly a funnel-web, keep your distance and seek expert identification. After a suspected bite, base first aid on symptoms and the medically significant comparison, not on an uncertain web photograph.

Compare with similar spiders

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

• Australian funnel-web spider — Australian funnel-web spider - a robust mygalomorph in a silk-lined ground or tree retreat can also have radiating trip lines and must be treated cautiously. Segestriids are generally more slender, have six eyes and hold the first three leg pairs forward, but do not approach a live spider to check.
• Curtain-web spider — Curtain-web spider - builds a broader sheet or curtain of silk leading to a crevice or burrow. Its heavier mygalomorph body and web geometry differ from the small circular Ariadna tube with discrete radiating signal lines.
• Black house spider — Black house spider - uses a fuzzy, lacy and often messy web with a funnel-like retreat around buildings or bark. It has the ordinary two-forward-pair stance and eight eyes rather than the compact six-legged-forward Ariadna posture.
• Wall spider / baseboard spider — Wall spider / baseboard spider - is a tiny flat runner on walls and around crevices, but it does not sit in a circular silk tube with radiating signal lines and lacks the distinctive segestriid resting stance.

Sources for this profile

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

• Australian Faunal Directory: Ariadna
• Australian Faunal Directory: Segestriidae
• FAO AGRIS: Australian Ariadna revision
• PubMed: Ariadna kiwirrkurra from Western Australia
• healthdirect: Spider bites

Profile review

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