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Comments & ID Thoughts
Spiders of the same species was found in a pallet of imported Cedar wood from Canada to New Zealand. Cannot find info online. Spiders had a gold spot on the tail and silver spots over it back.
- Submitted by:
- Submitted: Dec 17, 2019
- Photographed: Apr 9, 2019
- Spider: Steatoda capensis (False Katipo Spider)
- Location: Queenstown, New Zealand
- Spotted Outdoors: Man-made structure (building wall, fences, etc.)
- Found in web?: No
- Attributes: Dorsal
Feb 27, 2019
Feb 28, 2019
Heidelberg Gauteng, 
Please Help
I think they are Steatoda albomaculata. https://bugguide.net/node/view/48950 It is mostly a Canadian species. They are in family Theridiidae and the genus as a group are commonly called False Widows. They aren’t medically dangerous to people nor are they aggressive. They are quite effective at killing insects and other spiders. If you are aware that they just came into the country on a shipment please notify an appropriate regulatory agency. They may want to either kill them or document and track them if the species isn’t already present in New Zealand. The risk that they could pose would be to native… Read more »
iNaturalistNZ hasn’t had any confirmed sightings of the species in NZ. I haven’t found any historical records of it being present. I asked our Site Moderator, Itsy Bitsy, to give her identification opinion from your photo also. She has much more experience than I do.
Hi, this looks like a False Katipo Spider (Steatoda capensis).
http://www.terrain.net.nz/friends-of-te-henui-group/spiders/false-katipo-spider.html
I agree. It is already an introduced species to New Zealand. I bookmarked the NZ website you used, it is helpful.