I found this 5 mm big spider on the playground my daughter was playing. She almost ran into the web which was maybe 5 cm high from the ground!
My daughter is only 2 years and 7 months old, so a byte could easily have been fatal!
I thought they were much bigger than 5 mm.
So is this a red-back or am I wrong?
Although this spider is in the family Theridiidae, which includes the redback spider (Latrodectus hasselti); I cannot confirm it as such. There is some superficial resemblance to a juvenile redback - see http://tinyurl.com/499ubnq - but the overall body shape of yours seems appears more consistent with that of some other members of the family. Nevertheless, in absence of confirmation, caution is advised. See http://tinyurl.com/yc9ugk for detailed information on the redback spider.
