Spiders: Family Pisauridae
Common names: Fish-eating spiders, Nursery-web spiders, Funnel-web Pisaurid spiders. Large cosmopolitan family - 12 genera and 36 species in South Africa. Some pisaurids are web-dwelling, others free-living. Body size: 8-30 mm (males more slender). Webs vary from large sheet-webs with funnel retreats to sheet webs made on plants or the soil surface. Take an early morning walk and you will see the sun reflecting on the sheet webs. Pisaurids are found in a variety of habitats. The female usually carries the egg cocoon beneath her sternum and just before the young emerge she constructs a framework of silk, known as a nursery web in which she deposits the eggs. After emerging from the egg cocoon the young remain in this nursery web before they disperse, hence their common name nursery web spiders. They are excellent mothers and will guard the nursery with their lives, sometimes even dying from lack of food. Harmless to humans. Abundance: very common. (Marita Beneke)
Common names: Fish-eating spiders, Nursery-web spiders, Funnel-web Pisaurid spiders. Large cosmopolitan family - 12 genera and 36 species in South Africa. Some pisaurids are web-dwelling, others free-living. Body size: 8-30 mm (males more slender). Webs vary from large sheet-webs with funnel retreats to sheet webs made on plants or the soil surface. Take an early morning walk and you will see the sun reflecting on the sheet webs. Pisaurids are found in a variety of habitats. The female usually carries the egg cocoon beneath her sternum and just before the young emerge she constructs a framework of silk, known as a nursery web in which she deposits the eggs. After emerging from the egg cocoon the young remain in this nursery web before they disperse, hence their common name nursery web spiders. They are excellent mothers and will guard the nursery with their lives, sometimes even dying from lack of food. Harmless to humans. Abundance: very common. (Marita Beneke)
Hover on an image for the species name; click it to go to the more detailed species page.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |