The Brown House spider (badumna longinqua) resembles the black house spider except that it is usually brown rather than black and has more obvious surface markings on its abdomen.
It appears to be much more common than the black house spider in coastal South-east Queensland. This species is commonly found in retreats of leaves and tangled webbing in green shrubs, tree trunks, logs, It is also found in buildings and on car bodies rock walls and buildings (in window frames, wall crevices, etc). It feeds on insects such as flies, moths, beetles. Badumna longinqua itself is the favourite food of the whitetail spider.
The female spider never leaves her web unless forced to, but keeps on repairing it – old webs look untidy, grey and woolly from constant additions of silk. Its toxicity is uncertain; this species probably has the potential to cause mild illness but is rarely aggressive towards humans. It hunts only at night. Surprisingly they are quite a small spider – the one in the top photos below is no more than a centimetre in length.
