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A Guide to Common Singapore Spiders
by Joseph K H Koh
  Pale Spitting Spider
Scytodes pallida Doleschall 1859
 
close-up of female with egg sac
A female holding
an egg-sac
 Insects are captured by the squirting method. After biting it, the spider may eat away the glue lines that affix the victim. It wraps the victim with a thin layer of silk drawn from the spinnerets and carries it back to the web. Classification: Family Scytodidae, Spitting Spiders.
Habitat: Foliage in gardens and waste-land.
Female: 7-8 mm.
Male: 4 mm.
Distribution: Singapore (new record), Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, India.
Sometimes, the captured food is offered to the spiderlings by the mother. Builds a nest made of a twisted leaf held in position by strongly adhesive silk. The spider leaves the web at night to go hunting.
The family comprise nocturnal and slow-moving spiders that immobilise their prey by spraying two jets of glue-venom mixture through their fangs. The glue is produced by large glands inside the cephalothorax, which has a characteristic plump shape.

Whereas most spiders have eight eyes, Spitting Spiders have only six. Eggs are carried around by the mother under the palps.
  From "A Guide to Common Singapore Spiders" by Joseph K. H. Koh
BP Guide to Nature Series published by the Singapore Science Centre and sponsored by British Petroleum
© 2000 Joseph K H Koh