KATIPO SPIDERS

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4039, 9 January 1930, Page 3

KATIPO SPIDERS

WARNING TO BATHERS. Mr. W. IV. Smiith, of New Plymouth, whiting to the Wellington Post, on the subject of Katipo spiders says:—“After years of observation on and experience with this venomous and dangerous spider -in its haunts in itlie wrack on the sea shore, and in captivity, 1 may state that the months of January, February, and March eompiisr the period of the year when i ;« re unis-: active ami most dangerous. S> <• lln- nlantinq of marram grass m e;- U-.c :e „ .’. ■_ the -sea -shore, katipo.- have .-."mewii.ii alien'd their habits ami ha hit,-its. Formerly they generally occurred under heavy wrack—-es-pecially under heavy drift logs eas-l ashore, and under damp stones along the sea shore. I now find them much more numerous under dense tufts of marram grass than in their former haunts. As the I lifts of grass increase in size, the points of the outer leaves head down ’to the firm sand, and become embedded in it. The space between the embedded points of -the leaves and the parent plant is now the chief habitat of the katipo, according to my long experience with the species <m the Taranaki Coast. Sea bathers would, Ihejrefore, do well to strictly avoid standing or sitting on clumps of marram grass growing along the sea shore.”