South African Invader
In some dune systems, katipo may also be threatened by Steatoda capensis, a South African spider. It is shiny black and may have a dash of red, orange or yellow on it abdomen, thus its popular name ‘false katipo’. S. capensis produces more offspring than katipo and can breed throughout the year, (Katipo only breed in late spring and early summer.) Furthermore, S. capensis is not confined to coastal dunes but is commonly found under wood, debris and other objects, large distances from the coast. Because of these factors, S. capensis, is able to colonise driftwood and flotsam more quickly than katipo, following disturbances such as large storms, and under certain conditions may displace katipo from driftwood habitat in dune systems.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/FORBI20021101.2.32
Bibliographic details
Forest and Bird, Issue 306, 1 November 2002, Page 23
Word Count
124South African Invader Forest and Bird, Issue 306, 1 November 2002, Page 23
Using This Item
For material that is still in copyright, Forest & Bird have made it available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC 4.0). This periodical is not available for commercial use without the consent of Forest & Bird. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this magazine please refer to our copyright guide.
Forest & Bird has made best efforts to contact all third-party copyright holders. If you are the rights holder of any material published in Forest & Bird's magazine and would like to discuss this, please contact Forest & Bird at editor@forestandbird.org.nz
Log in