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New Zealand's largest spider is the Avondale spider. New Zealand venomous spiders include the New Zealand Katipo, Funnel Webs, Black Widows and Tarantulas.
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Spiders are ferocious and aggressive predators. Spiders are fierce hunters with strong jaws and sharp eyes paralysing their prey with piercing fangs, normally eating their prey alive.
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Many spider species are cannibalistic. Around mating time males in particular have to be very careful in case they too are eaten. Females are normally much larger than the males.
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Exceedingly sensitive to web vibrations, spiders can distinguish between prey (food), foreign bodies and family. Spider silk threads are sometimes made up of as many as five different silks. Spider silk will stretch by 20% of it's length before breaking.
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A normal size mature (Orb Web) spider say 10mm long will spin a web approximately 15cm in diameter. In exposed situations a single web may not survive more than 24 hours. The process begins again!
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Spider silk has made great contributions to science through its use as "cross-hairs" in optical instruments such as transits, levels, microscopes and astronomical instruments.
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