00:00You could walk past this spider every day and never even notice it.
00:05It is barely a centimeter long.
00:07It hides in sheds, gardens, under steps, and sometimes surprisingly close to where people live.
00:14But there are two things about the redback spider that make it worth noticing.
00:18One involves its venom.
00:19The other involves sex.
00:22The Australian redback spider, Latrodectus hasletae, is found across Australia
00:28and is especially common in disturbed and urban environments.
00:31Its preferred hiding places are dry and sheltered, among rocks, logs, shrubs, piles of debris, sheds,
00:39and other structures around people.
00:41And that's part of what makes the redback different from some of Australia's more notorious spiders.
00:46You don't have to go deep into the wilderness to encounter one.
00:49It can be living quietly beside you.
00:52Most of the time, though, the spider isn't looking for a fight.
00:55It stays in its web, waiting for prey to become trapped.
00:59So where does the danger come from?
01:01The answer is the female.
01:03Her venom is neurotoxic, meaning it acts on the nervous system.
01:07A bite can produce intense pain, sweating, nausea, vomiting, and muscular weakness.
01:13And while serious envenomation can occur, redbacks generally don't go looking for humans.
01:18Most bites happen when someone accidentally presses a body part into the spider or its web.
01:22In fact, the Australian Museum notes that redbacks rarely leave their webs.
01:27And because of their small jaws, some bites don't even successfully envenomate.
01:32So the spider isn't chasing you.
01:34The real danger is much simpler.
01:36You didn't see her.
01:37But the female has another reason to be feared.
01:40And this one has nothing to do with humans.
01:42Because when a male redback finds a female, he may be walking toward his own death.
01:47The male is dramatically smaller than the female.
01:50And during mating, he performs one of the strangest behaviors known in spiders.
01:55He climbs onto the female, then somersaults his abdomen toward her mouth parts.
02:00Essentially placing himself where she can eat him.
02:02And she often does.
02:03But here's where the story gets even stranger.
02:07Scientists discovered that this isn't simply a case of the male making a terrible mistake.
02:11Being eaten can actually increase the time he spends mating, allowing more sperm to be transferred.
02:17And females that consume their first mate are also less likely to mate again.
02:21So what looks like suicide may actually give the male a reproductive advantage.
02:26For the redback male, survival isn't necessarily the ultimate goal.
02:30Passing on his genes is.
02:32And the female doesn't stop there.
02:34After mating, she can store sperm and use it over a long period, producing multiple batches of eggs.
02:39She can create numerous egg sacs, each containing hundreds of eggs.
02:44And when those spiderlings emerge, they face another brutal world.
02:48Some will eat unhatched eggs.
02:51Some will eat their own siblings.
02:52From the moment they hatch, survival is already a competition.
02:56That's what makes the redback so fascinating.
02:59A tiny spider hiding in ordinary places, with venom that can seriously affect humans,
03:04and a mating ritual where death can become part of reproduction.
03:08So the next time you see a small web tucked away somewhere around your home, look closely.
03:13You might be sharing the space with something you almost never noticed.
03:17If you enjoy discovering the hidden side of the natural world, follow Wild Wisdom for more.
03:23Stay curious.
03:25Stay wild.
03:26Stay wild.
