Battles to the death are taking place across Australia as sisters fight it out for the family home.
Dr Linda Rayor, a visiting fellow at the Australian National University in Canberra, uncovered the gruesome family feuds while studying the tree-dwelling species of huntsman spider Delena cancerides.
Rayor, from Cornell University's Department of Entomology, says her study of D. cancerides has shown it is the only one of the 1039 known huntsman species that lives a social life with family members.
Among the world's 40,000 known spider species only 1% are social with this species one of only two that does not spin a web.
Rayor believes the communal lifestyle has been thrust upon the spider by a lack of suitable accommodation in the wild.
In travels around remote Australia looking for the spider, Rayor has found the arachnid is in the midst of a housing crisis.
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