Desidae (Intertidal & House Spiders)

The family Desidae are named after the genus Desis which live in intertidal zones; hunting during low tide, being submerged underwater during high tide, and using an air pocket in silk to breathe. This family of spiders also includes some of the most common you’d likely see around your house, and especially in windowsills or garden sheds. They can often get a bad reputation for their not-so-friendly appearance and their messy webs. Badumna insignis exhibits a bright white messy web with a tunnel in the middle. You can often see it waiting close to the entrance waiting for prey to pass by or get stuck. When threatened, it will retreat back into the tunnel and appear again when the threat is gone. Badumna longinqua behaves in a similar way and is the smaller of these two most common Badumna species; B. longinqua being the smaller and more grey/brown in appearance.