More info about Nursery Web Spiders on André Bon's site here (in English).
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| Female carrying her egg sac seen in 2013. |
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| And the only one I've seen with an egg sac this year. |
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| The first web was in a Hydrangea. You can see the egg sac behind the blue flowers and a few of Mum's legs are visible at the top. |
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| Mrs Pisaura mirabilis on the nursery web with legs held in the typical position for this species. |
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| I found a couple more on Cranesbill Geraniums. Here you can see the babies. |
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| The second one with an upset (I think) Mum because I'd been watering before I noticed her! I've never seen them with their legs drawn up like this before - their characteristic position is to hold the front 2 legs on each side straight out and together. |
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| The best nursery web I found was down by the pond on a Knapweed plant. |
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| You can see how she's built her web around the stem of the plant, then she'd tethered it to another stem for extra protection. The dark blob beneath the Knapweed bud is the mass of spiderlings. |
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| Babies - this photo was taken two days after the one at the top when Mum was guarding them. She'd already left by this time. |
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| A few days later and the babies are starting to disperse around the web. |
I then wanted to try to get a closer shot but my SX50 camera can't focus that easily so I put my hand behind to force it to close focus, when all of a sudden..........
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| The babies just shot down that web and out into the open! It certainly made it easier to get photos of them. |
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| They didn't come on me - not that I would have been bothered by teeny things like this but I wonder why they did this. I have to assume my movement spelled danger for them and they all ran like hell! |
Now my next 'most want to see' in the spider department is a wolf spider carrying her babies on her back. I see tons of them carrying their egg sacs so it's about time! :-)
I am phobic about spiders and wish I wasn't.You have answered a question I've been carrying in my head for the last few weeks because I've also seen these spiders with their egg sac and wondered what they were. Now I know :-)
ReplyDeleteHi CT - you are very brave to look at this post - I don't do many spider posts and usually give a warning at the top but reckoned the title was self explanatory. Glad I was able to solve your mystery! :-)
DeleteThe more you delve into nature Mandy, the more amazing it becomes.
ReplyDeleteThat is so true, Roy, thank you. :-)
DeleteLovely post again Mandy. I have photographed the garden spider babies many times but not these and so it's a real treat to see your pictures.
ReplyDeleteHi JJ - I haven't even seen garden spider babies, in fact these are the first baby spiders I've ever seen. So I've got lots to look forward to. Thanks very much!
DeleteNice shots Mandy! I've never seen a wolf spider carrying her babies either so would love to see that!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kim and let's see who finds one first then! ;-)
DeleteWonderful documentation! I'm assuming this is a relative of our commonly called Wolf Spider. I've seen plenty carrying their sacs but never the nursery! So very cool :-). Thanks, as always, for the education :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Marianne, no these are from a different family to Wolf spiders (Lycosidae), who carry their young on their back after they hatch - something I really want to see. You do have spiders from this family (Pisauridae) in the US, though whether in your state or not I don't know. Anyway thanks very much. :-)
DeleteGreat post Mandy and your photos are stunning, this is one of the main spiders I see at the park, some can be quite big, do they have young more than once a year ?
ReplyDeleteAmanda xx
Hi Amanda and thanks! I don't know the answer to that question but would have thought only once. I have seen them early in the year (presumably this year's young grown up?) and you may have seen them stretched out on nettles, as I've seen them do that. They also liked my Euphorbias when they were attracting flies in early spring too.
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