Editing Redback spider (section)

===Prey===
[[File:Redback vers Lizard.jpg|thumb|left|Female with a lizard it has captured]]

Redbacks usually prey on insects, but can capture larger animals that become entangled in the web, including [[trapdoor spider]]s, small [[lizard]]s,<ref name="Amo-Redback"/><ref>{{cite journal|last=Metcalfe|first=Dean C.|author2=Ridgeway, Peter A.|title=A Case of Web Entanglement and Apparent Predation of the Skink ''Lampropholis delicata'' (De Vis, 1888) (Sauria: Scincidae: Lygosominae) by the Red-back Spider ''Latrodectus hasseltii'' Thorell, 1870 (Aranea: Araneomorpha: Theridiidae) in an Autochthonous Mesic Habitat in Coastal Southeast Australia|journal=Herpetology Notes|date=23 August 2013|volume=6|pages=375–77|url=http://www.herpetologynotes.seh-herpetology.org/Volume6_PDFs/Metcalfe_HerpetologyNotes_volume6_pages375-377.pdf|access-date=24 October 2013|archive-date=29 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029192607/http://www.herpetologynotes.seh-herpetology.org/Volume6_PDFs/Metcalfe_HerpetologyNotes_volume6_pages375-377.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> and even on rare occasion snakes.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Malpass|first1=Luke|title=Spider v snake: Redback spider wins, snake dies from likely poisoning|url=http://www.smh.com.au/environment/animals/spider-v-snake-redback-spider-wins-snake-dies-from-likely-poisoning-20150303-13tgdf.html|website=The Sydney Morning Herald|access-date=3 March 2015|date=3 March 2015|archive-date=3 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150303151220/http://www.smh.com.au/environment/animals/spider-v-snake-redback-spider-wins-snake-dies-from-likely-poisoning-20150303-13tgdf.html|url-status=live}}</ref> One web was recorded as containing a dead mouse.{{sfn|McKeown|1963|p=144}} The woodlouse (''[[Porcellio scaber]]'') is a particularly common food item.{{sfn|McKeown|1963|p=193}} Developing spiderlings need size-appropriate prey, and laboratory studies show that they are willing to consume common fruit flies (''[[Drosophila melanogaster]]''), mealworm larvae (''[[Tenebrio molitor]]''), [[Schizophora|muscoid flies]] and early nymphs of [[cockroach]]es.<ref name=Downes1987/> Food scraps and lighting attract insect prey to areas of human activity, which brings the redbacks.{{sfn|Brunet|1997|p=148}} Once alerted to a creature becoming ensnared in a trap line, the redback advances to around a leg's length from its target, touching it and squirting a liquid glutinous silk over it to immobilise it. It then bites its victim repeatedly on the head, body and leg joints and wraps it in sticky and dry silk. Unlike other spiders, it does not rotate its prey while wrapping in silk, but like other spiders, it then injects a venom that liquefies its victim's innards. Once it has trussed the prey, the redback takes it to its retreat and begins sucking out the liquefied insides, generally 5 to 20 minutes after first attacking it.<ref name="Forster95"/> Redback spiders do not usually drink, except when starved.<ref name=Forster1989/>

Commonly, [[kleptoparasitism|prey-stealing]] occurs where larger females take food items stored in other spiders' webs.<ref name="Amo-Redback"/> When they encounter other spiders of the same species, often including those of the opposite sex, they engage in battle, and the defeated spider is eaten.<ref name=SMH1907/> If a male redback is accepted by a female, it is permitted to feed on the victims snared in the female's web.<ref name=SMH1907/> Baby spiders also steal food from their mother, which she tries to prevent. They also consume sticky silk as well as small midges and flies. Spiderlings are cannibalistic, more active ones sometimes eating their less active siblings.<ref name="Forster95"/>