Laying of the Appin Hairy Spider

The Appin Hairy Spider (Ryuthela secundaria), which first appeared in the Triassic period, are generally heavily built and hairy, with large, robust chelicerae and fangs. Well-known examples include tarantulas, trapdoor spiders and the Australasian funnel-web spiders. Most spend the majority of their time in burrows, and some run silk tripwires out from these, but a few build webs to capture prey. However Appin Hairy Spiders cannot produce the pirifom silk that the Araneomorphae use as instant adhesive to glue silk to surfaces or to other strands of silk, and this makes web construction more difficult for mygalomorphs. Since mygalomorphs rarely "balloon" by using air currents for transport, their populations often form clumps. In addition to arthropods, Appin Hairy Spiders prey on frogs and lizards, and snails.

 

Hatching eggs of the Appin Hairy Spider.

The Appin Hairy Spider usually lays 40-80 eggs per year. The mature male has a brown-colored body with black patches on the joints of its legs, the second element of the legs is orange-red. Following molting, the colors are more pronounced. The dark portion is very black while the orange-red portions will be far more on the reddish side.
An adult female has a body roughly 4 inches long, with a leg span of 6 inches, and a mass of approximately 15 grams. Both sexes are similar in appearance, with the male having a somewhat smaller body, but longer legs. Thus the male is of comparable size to the female, but has a significantly smaller mass.

 The eggs can be found in warm and wet places.