The Spider that literally looks like Bird Poop

The animal we all have been waiting for: The Bird Dropping Spider, none like it and very unique in color, texture and motives.

“It’s the ultimate crappy disguise, the spider Cyclosa ginnaga hides from predators by looking like a pile of bird feces,” said Carrie Arnold from a posting made on May 29th 2014. However, that may not be the case with these wonderful spiders because although they have camouflaged themselves literally by nature in the form of bird droppings, these species of spiders have also mimicked themselves as well to attract food in the form of another species. Pretty amazing for a spider to camouflage themselves in two different forms of creatures.

Let’s start with the name of these types of spiders. The scientific name is called Celaeria Excavata and the name given to them is from the mimicking bird droppings in order to avoid predators such as birds and wasps, but bare in mind that there are other species of spiders that have yet to be named that also takes the shape and form of bird droppings as well. Names such as Deaths Head Spider is due to its markings resembling the shape of a skull. You also have Orchard Spider because of where they usually nest and lastly Bird Dung Spider due to color and shape of bird poop. Today, this is what I have learned about this spider.

You can normally find the Bird Dropping Spiders spread out throughout eastern and southern Australia in gardens where if not known can be easily overlooked. The Bird Dropping Spider can be found mostly on fruit trees where moths are prominent staying close to where the vegetation and food settle.

Let’s look at the Bird Dropping Spider, the abdomen is large and triangle shape concave along the middle with humps originating in the rear with their legs pulled folded into the body.

There is a male and female Bird Dropping Spider, female at 12 mm and male much smaller in comparison being only 2.5mm. The female lays egg sacs as large as 12mm in diameter that in their appearance are marbled brown in color and shaped into balls. Within these balls there lies 200 eggs per ball that a Bird Dropping Spider can lay in one sitting. The intriguing part is that these spiders can silk together up to thirteen sacs in one group and have the female spider dangling beneath the sacs keeping a close distance to her eggs by night. In the day, the female spider stays completely inert with legs tucked into itself in the event of a predator lurking alongside. Even these sacs that are lined together appear as bird dung to protect itself from predators close by.

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The female Bird Dropping Spider capture prey in a very interesting process. The spider hangs out on a web or leaf exposed in the appearance of bird feces while in initiating mimicry to attract the male moths. This clever female spider at night dangles from the edge of a leaf or the top of twig from a plant with her forelegs outstretched embraced in silk webbing for support emitting a pheromone that is only released from a female moth while perched on her web below a leaf. This chemical scent is calling out to all male moths in the nearby vicinity to come and mate with her. Unbeknownst the male moth, when he swoops down to investigate and with the intent to mate with this so called female moth, the Bird Dropping Spider thrust her forelegs, which are the strongest of her shell, in a snapping position shooting out her web to the male moth, pulling him into her and devouring him.

How the mating ritual goes in unknown being that these spiders have not been researched as heavily as some of our more popular spiders in the world and community. Usually we tend to be more informed on the poisonous spiders and often abstain from the more thrilling and animated of spiders. Appearance also has allot of do with spiders getting the attention they deserve and so this specific spider to me is the first of the spiders to get my attention and keep it.

The toxicity of the Bird Dropping Spider is not considered to be dangerous and may cause some mild swelling, tenderness and pain that can be eased by a cold pack on the affected site. So no need to worry if you do happen to stumble across the Bird Dropping Spider and not realize it and does decide to get a bite out of you, this spider is more flashy then dangerous. Like the Museums Victoria said “A spider that looks like bird poo and whose eggs look like a bunch of grapes?” (Museum Victoria, August 29th 2011) The answer is “For the keen eyed amongst us, there is a fascinating surprise waiting in our gardens: the spider commonly known as the Bird-dropping Spider. They're certainly a good species to have around, however, as they catch so many moths.” (Museum Victoria, August 29th 2011)

Everybody give way for the Bird Dropping Spider!

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4