The redback spider with its victim on Neale Postlethwaite's farm. Credit:Neale Postlethwaite "I went in for a closer look and found the spider going to work on it. "The next day the snake was on the ground and a trail of ants were getting into it, so I don't know how much lunch the spider had." The venom program supervisor at the Australian Reptile Park, Billy Collett, said the sighting of a spider eating a snake was incredibly rare. "As you can see in the photos, it has wrapped [the snake's] tail up and has probably bitten it a few times, and the snake could be getting quite ill quite quickly and [then] obviously succumb to death," Mr Collett said.

"It's one of those things that mother nature doesn't show us too often. I guess you've got to be there with a camera to see it, let alone get proof of it." The redback, a relatively small spider, is not known for trying to attack snakes. "Normally it's a bigger species of spider like an orb weaving spider, but to see a redback taking down [a snake] is quite extraordinary," Mr Collett said. The find may be remarkable, but Mr Postlethwaite and wife Judy would be quite happy to not see another snake in close proximity to the house for a while. "Judy wants me to take the car through an undercar wash before she'll use it again," Mr Postlethwaite joked.

Mr Collett said the spider was likely to eat the snake, but exactly how and how much of a snake spiders eat remains somewhat of a mystery. "There's no way that spider's going to be able to eat that whole snake," he said. "But, you know, the spider would get a bit of a meal from it, absolutely. "What happens is the spider injects its venom inside the animal and then the animal's insides break apart and sort of turn to almost like a soup, and they literally drink that. The snake, which looks like an eastern brown snake, is more likely to be a Dwyer's snake, Mr Collett said. "They are nowhere near as venomous but are still a mildly venomous species, and having a redback eat it is quite extraordinary," he said.

"If you got bitten, you'd probably have a bit of swelling around the area. If you react really bad to bee stings and wasp stings and things like that you'd probably have a bit of an anaphylaxis reaction or something like that. "It's not going to kill you, but they can possibly make you quite sick."