Spider

The Comb-footed Platform Spider is named both for the comb-like structure of its feet and its platform web.
Identification
The Comb-footed Platform Spider has a striking patchwork color pattern,but is best recognized by its moderately large, distinctive web with a leaf detritus retreat.
Size range
5 mm - 8 mm
Habitat
The Comb-footed Platform Spider is common in bush land and gardens ineastern Australia.
Behavior and adaptations
Feeding and Diet
When insects fly into the 'knockdown' network of threads of the Comb-footed Platform Spider's retreat, they fall through onto a silk sheetwhere they are seized by the spider.
Feeding Habits
Arthropod-feeder, carnivorous, insectivorous
Other behaviors and adaptations
The Comb-footed Platform Spider is not as specialized a retreatbuilder as the leaf-curling orb weavers; however a curled leaf may be used, or some leaf detritus may be loosely silken together. The retreat is placed in the centre of a network of threads spun above ahorizontal, close-meshed silk sheet. These webs are usually built among understory shrubs and low trees and are often seen in overgrown gardens.
Life history mode
Arboreal
Mating and reproductionThe egg sacs are placed inside the Comb-footed Platform Spiders' silk retreat.
Predators, Parasites and Diseases
The complex webs of the Comb-footed Platform Spider harbor a range of other animals,from small moth larvae that scavenge along the silk lines to spiders that find prey in the outer parts of the web. Some of these are small prey stealers of the genus Argyrodes. However, they includeone species that is a specialist predator on A. mundula. Argyrodes incursus is a small, jet black spider with a single red spot on its abdomen. Somehow, the smaller spider kills the larger A.mundula and eats it, finally making its own egg sac within the dead host's retreat.
Funnel weaver spider: (Family Agelenidae) spiders often found in grassy fields, low shrubbery, or living among leaf litter...