Spitting Spider

The spitting spider, Scytodes thoracica, is a spider found across Europe, North Africa and temperate Asia as far as China, Korea and Japan, and introduced to North America, Chile, Argentina, India, Australia and New Zealand, often living inside human dwellings as well as in grasslands and savannas. It measures 3 to 6 millimeters in body length, with a carapace that slopes upward toward the rear and only six eyes rather than the eight found in most spiders. Uniquely among spiders, its silk glands connect to its venom glands, letting it immobilize prey from a distance by spitting two threads of venom-laced silk in a zigzag pattern across its target in a fraction of a second, rather than relying on a web or a chase.