Spitting spiders got their name from the way they catch their prey. When they encounter prey, they raise themselves and spray a toxic ‘glue’ in a zigzag pattern on the prey, which pins it down. Then the spider draws near and delivers its fatal bite. The spider hunts at night and does not build a web. Eight species occur in Europe within a single genus.
Genus Scytodes
Scytodes is conspicuous by the domed carapace and the abdomen that has about the same size and has the same kind of pattern. The female makes a round egg sac of only a few silk threads and carries it beneath her belly. By the time the spiderlings hatch, she deposits the egg sac.
