Wasp Spider

captain nodge · #1 (**permalink**) 28-01-2010, 10:16 AM

I went quickly through the spiders thread (pardon the pun) to see if these had been mentioned before, i didnt see any previous but if there is and youve been through this before then excuse the repitition,
i took this back in the summer and googled it to find out more,
didnt need a phd to see why it is called a wasp spider, i found out that it was a female,due to its larger size, and that if the male doesnt time it right, she will eat him, they are apparently working there way up north, any more info on these would be great, ps was found near Rye East Sussex and was roughly the size of a peanut

Bruce Williams · #2 (**permalink**) 28-01-2010, 10:30 AM

Nice photo

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I'm not an expert on spiders however one interesting thing about the Wasp Spider is their unusual web. It has a fairly opaque zig-zag pattern woven vertically into it called a stabilimentum. Take a look at this galley pic taken by Wild-Woman that really shows this feature off well:

Bruce

captain nodge · #3 (**permalink**) 28-01-2010, 04:47 PM

Yeah see what you mean, i will have to look out for those webs, they like to trap grasshoppers apparently so maybe thats the plan behind this unusual web design, pretty looking things aint they, i wonder the reason behind their bright color is to put of predators?Nice clear piccys those of Wild~Woman well done to her

Wild-Woman · #4 (**permalink**) 28-01-2010, 06:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by captain nodge

Yeah see what you mean, i will have to look out for those webs, they like to trap grasshoppers apparently so maybe thats the plan behind this unusual web design, pretty looking things aint they, i wonder the reason behind their bright color is to put of predators?Nice clear piccys those of Wild~Woman well done to her

Cheers- but they are one of my favourite subjectss.