Another spider from my new "Spiders" set... the Australian Black Widow (aka the Redback). This image was inspired by an Australian song, "Redback on the toilet seat" by Slim Newton (look it up on youTube, the song is hilarious). He won the Golden Guitar at the first Country Music Awards of Australia in 1973 for that song. The adult female is easily recognized by its spherical black body with a prominent red stripe on the upper side of her abdomen and an hourglass-shaped red/orange streak on the underside. Females usually have a body length of about 10 mm (0.4 in), while the male is brownish and much smaller, being only 3–4 mm (0.12–0.16 in) long. It was originally found in southern Australia and the adjacent western Australian deserts, but now found throughout Australia, Southeast Asia and New Zealand, with colonies elsewhere outside Australia. It is found in a warm sheltered locations, commonly near or inside human residences. The venom of the redback spider is thought to be similar to that of the other Latrodectus spiders. It contains a complex mixture of cellular constituents, enzymes and a number of high-molecular-weight toxins, including insect toxins and a vertebrate neurotoxin called alpha-latrotoxin, which causes intense pain in humans. Redback antivenom was developed by Commonwealth Serum Laboratories. Indigenous Australians in New South Wales mixed the spiders' bodies with the venom of snakes and pine tree gum to form a broth used to coat spear tips.